Season 3: Fate is What We Make
by Stone262
Summary: In this story I will be continuing where the show left off after Season 2. All characters are owned by WB/FOX, but I claim rights to this story. I will be posting a new chapter every Monday. Enjoy and spread the word!
1. So Why Are You Here?

**An Introduction If You Will**

So after watching the first two seasons of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles I was hopeful this show would get a third season. However FOX TV did not have my enthusiasm for the show.

On that note I do not own any of the characters in this story and I am just writing this story in my opinion of what would happen. All Terminator terms, people, and past season info belong to FOX, WB, and I'm sure fifty other companies. This story, however, is mine.

Summary of the Show: The show focuses around Sarah and John Connor and his female guardian, Cameron. The events are set after the movie Terminator 2, but before Terminator 3 and so on. In the first season we see John find out that Skynet wants to kill him and a terminator named Cameron was sent back through time to protect him. The main enemy was Cromartie. It was T-888 terminator that was eventually used as the body for John Henry. John doesn't want to run anymore, he wants to fight Skynet head on. In season two it was about small battles to try and slow down Skynet and discovering more about Cameron and her malfunctions after she suffered a car bomb at the end of season 1. Here is a breakdown of the key players of the series so you can jump right into my Fictional Story of Season 3.

John Connor – Leader of the Future Resistance that will save the humans from total elimination from the machine network called Skynet. In this story he is about 18-20 years old. The nuclear war that starts the war doesn't happen for years so for now he is just a normal guy trying to learn to be the leader he must become in the future.

Skynet – A network of self aware computers that believe humans are a threat to its survival and wants them all terminated after it starts the nuclear war. In order to combat the humans, they made various types of machines that look like humans on the outside, but a metal endoskeleton that is almost un-killable with the weapons of our time. Most common form of terminator is the T-600 model which is a machine with rubber skin, and the T-888 model which look exactly like everyday humans.

Sarah Connor – John's mother. She is very untrusting of all terminators, even though the future resistance sent a protector terminator to save her son John at a young age in Terminator 2. She has fought terminators before in Terminator 1 and 2. She is always trying to keep John close to protect him.

Cameron – A new prototype of terminator chassis called the TOK-715. Looks exactly like a human female about 20 years old and is a protector for John sent from the future. She was John's most trusted machine in the future after he re-programmed her. Her best role is infiltration.

Catherine Weaver – A rare terminator type from the T-1000 series model. She is made of liquid metal. Her background consists of refusing to help the future John Connor, but in this current time, she had allied herself with him. She is a business person that owns a big corporation (Zeira Corp) that deals in a lot of higher technology deals.

John Henry – In the beginning of the show, John Henry was just an AI on a hard drive called the "Turk" Catherine Weaver was able to capture a T-888 model (with no CPU) for it to grow into so it could become mobile, speak, and learn at a rapid pace. However it was immobile since the "Turk" was a computer hard drive plugged into its head. It is hinted around that it is the "Good" version of Skynet that doesn't want the war. However it is a new and young AI.

James (Agent) Ellison – A FBI agent that has quit his job and now works for Catherine Weaver. He was trying to teach John Henry ethics and morals in season 2 of the show.

Savannah Weaver – Catherine Weaver's daughter, however she is human.

Season 2 leaves off as Cameron breaking Sarah Connor out of jail. By doing so took a decent amount of damage that added to her internal glitches and damage from a car bomb she suffered from the end of season 1. She was in pretty bad shape. After getting a message that Cameron knew about from Weaver, they fled to Catherine Weaver's office right after breaking Sarah out of jail. Sarah and John went to talk to Weaver, trying to buy time for Cameron to destroy John Henry, which was believed at the time that it was Skynet. Skynet attacked the building causing Weaver, John, and Sarah to go to the basement. There we see that Cameron sat in a chair disabled without her CPU. Weaver said it looked like Cameron gave up her CPU, so John Henry could become mobile. Weaver then said that John Henry used the time displacement equipment to jump to the future and she was going to follow him. John sided with Weaver and Sarah and Ellison stayed behind. John jumped into the future with Weaver and realized that the only way to get Cameron back is to find John Henry.

With all the commotion that occurred from Weaver and John Connor jumping into the future, Weaver decided that it would be best for her to disappear. She figured that the humans would not take too kindly to find a human and a T-1000 spawning out of thin air. John noticing that he was naked took some clothes that were lying on the floor next to what seemed to be a human soldier's bed. He quickly put on the clothes and heard dogs barking and men coming his way. John threw his hands in the air to surrender. John looked around for Weaver to help explain the situation, but she was long gone. How she disappeared so quickly was beyond John. He was shocked to see Derek coming in after the two other soldiers.

"Derek?" John asked.

"Yeah, who are you kid?" Derek replied.

"I'm John Connor." John stated thinking that now it would be alright.

"Anyone know a John Connor?" Derek asked looking at his men. The other men looked in denial and had no clue who this man said he was. "Well John Connor, I am sure you will be quite famous in a minute. You are wearing my brother's uniform." Derek blurted out at him. John turned around and saw Kyle Reese and stood frozen looking at the girl he remembered so well.

This is where the season two ends and where my story of season 3 begins! Enjoy!

**Chapter 1: So Why Are You Here?**

"So really kid, who are you and where did you come from. Are you a gray or just a thief?" Derek asked snapping John back to his attention. Derek sounded like he was sort of agitated.

"Relax Derek, he is just a kid." Kyle said trying to get Derek to back down a little. "So what is your story, Connor?"

"Honestly, it is a long story Sir." John said sort of coy.

"Good, you will have plenty of time to tell us." Derek said tapping his foot on the floor.

"Look, if I tell you, you will just think I'm crazy and probably shoot me." John said really not knowing what to say.

"I've seen and heard some pretty messed up stuff kid. Try me." Derek responded.

"Okay, I traveled from the past to this time, because in my version of the past, a machine is reprogrammed to be my protector and she died because someone took her chip, and now I am here to get it back, then go back home then save the world from this war by stopping Skynet before the nuclear attacks." John explained to Derek just waiting for him to reply.

"Damn." Derek said. "You're right. Allison, go get him a new pair of clothes, then lock him in a holding cell. I don't trust this kid, and I want answers before I let him walk around like a free man." Derek commanded Allison.

"Yes sir." Allison said as the dog followed her every move.

"Connor it won't be long. I'll talk to my thick skulled brother. He got a check minus as a kid in school on playing well with others. He has been pissed about it since." Kyle said making fun of his brother and tried to give John some reassurance.

Allison smiled at John and told him to follow her. After walking around in the tunnels for a while, Allison brought him to what seemed to be a bunk room. It wasn't much. Just some old torn blankets on the floor and some spare clothes. She picked out a few clothes for John and handed it to him.

"Put these on and stay here. I will be back in 5 minutes." Allison said. "I will be kind enough to leave you be while you change."

John put on the new clothes. All in all, they actually did fit him a little better; grant there were still what appeared to be bullet holes and burn marks in them. After he changed he sat down for a bit.

"This headache is killing me, jumping though time is really starting to suck." John said to himself. "Not only does this suck, now that I am in the future, no one believes me at all. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this mess?"

Slowly, John got up and started to wonder what happened to Weaver and John Henry.

Allison came around the corner and looked at John.

"Sorry, but orders are orders. Are you ready?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready." John said softly.

Allison led him around some more tunnels and into a room. It really wasn't a horrible place to be kept prisoner. It did have two guards ready to take care of anyone that was going to try and escape.

Just as Allison was about to close the door, she studied John.

"When you first looked at me John, you stared like you knew me. How is that possible? I for one have never seen you." Allison questioned him.

"Maybe I can tell you sometime, hopefully sooner than later." John said.

Allison shut the door to go report back to Kyle and Derek. John sat down on the ground holding his pounding head when he noticed she left him some food on the ground.

Weaver walked around for hours until she finally found John Henry standing around surveying the land. It was a quiet area considering the rest of the world was at war.

"Hello Ms. Weaver. I see that you have found me." John Henry said still staring off into the distance.

"Yes, John Henry. I have found you. Have you found what you have been looking for?" Weaver asked.

"Indeed I have Ms. Weaver. I know you told me all about the war before, but I needed to see it with my own eyes. I see now that the humans will not win this war without our help. John will also need Cameron to protect him as he will also need us to assist him in the past. How is John, knowing that Cameron gave me her chip?" John Henry asked.

"You probably can ask him soon enough. He followed me here into this time. His commitment to his machine outweighed his commitment to his own flesh and blood mother." Weaver said.

"I did not predict that he would do that Ms. Weaver. I will have to recalculate a plan to get us all back through time safely now. But even if we all go back to the past right now, he isn't quite strong or wise enough to know how to win this war." John Henry commented.

"I know. We can train him faster. However, the main key lies with his protector, Cameron."

"Why exactly must it be her Ms. Weaver? I have access to all of her files and I really don't see why she is the main key to everything." John Henry asked.

"Sometime when John Connor is truly ready to lead, I will tell you and everyone else everything I have seen before. Until then, that secret will be mine to keep." Weaver told John Henry.

"I understand Ms. Weaver. I can only calculate that you must have jumped in time before. Using your previous comments, your first jump wasn't back in time far enough so Cameron hasn't had the timeframe to become this key you talk about, and the human race was already doomed." John Henry thought out loud.

"You are a quick learner John Henry. Keep that thought to yourself. Let us hope that this third jump back in time will be enough." Weaver keenly looked at John Henry. "How much time do you need before you are ready to go home?"

"I only need another two days. Skynet is already building the prototype endoskeleton of the new TOK-715. I will need John Connor and Allison however to complete the process and be ready to time travel back to where we left." John Henry explained to Weaver.

"I will get you the girl and our hero; you get back to work on the TOK-715." Weaver said as she walked away from John Henry and back to the human resistance's camp where she left John.


	2. From a Hero to Just a Soldier

**Chapter 2 – From a Hero to Just a Soldier.**

John sat there in his holding room for quite a while. He drifted off to sleep since he didn't feel all that great. After some time passed John was woken up by a pounding on the door. The door opened and Kyle walked in the room.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" Kyle asked the sleepy teenager from the past.

"Yeah." John said really not knowing what to say. He didn't want to tell him everything on his mind because if he screws this future up, would Kyle never go back to be his dad? The whole matter made John's head spin.

"So you are from the past huh? What is it like?" Kyle quizzed John.

"It is different. Everything isn't blown up, there are people walking around without fear. I miss it, to be honest with you Kyle." John told him.

"So tell me about this machine you are looking for. I guess it is weird; because we only kill them, not convert them to helping us. However, if it is doable, who am I to spit on the chance to get the information to turn the tides." Kyle rambled on.

"You have to get to the chip." John said.

"I don't think they really give us that chance, John." Kyle said with a smile.

"I know. However, if you send about a kilowatt of power up their ass, it reboots them and you have about two minutes. You pop open the port cover and pull the chip. But you will need one hell of a programmer to do it." John explained to Kyle.

"Not too bad kid. I like that idea. Maybe one day we can try that if I blow off its arms and legs first. You do have some interesting ideas. So do you have proof you are from the past or do I have to tell my brother that you just hit the bottle too much as an infant?" Kyle laughed.

"I don't expect you to believe me, Kyle. Just know that if it wasn't for the bombs falling from the sky, you would have made a great baseball player. You had a good swing." John smirked at Kyle, digging up a memory he saw sitting with the Derek eating ice cream on his birthday.

Kyle looked like he saw a ghost. He nodded his head and told John, "My brother will be in shortly. I have to head off for a recon mission. When I get back in a few days, I want to hear more about this so called past you speak of."

Kyle left the room and Derek came in right after him.

"What did you tell my little brother, he looked like he saw a ghost." Derek said sitting on the floor.

"I just answered his questions. That is all." John told Derek.

"Good now you can answer mine." Derek chimed right back at John. "So this machine you are looking for. What does it look like, so I can know what I am up against?"

John described the machine in exact detail. "His name is John Henry."

"I can't wait to meet him." Derek laughed. "Look kid, you have quite the imaginative mind, but you aren't from the past. You really expect me to believe time traveling?"

John sat there quiet. "Look if I tell you the truth, you will think I am insane. If I admit I am just full of it, will you let me go?"

"If you can tell me something about the past I know is true, I will let you out right now." Derek told John. He was almost daring John to prove him wrong.

John looked him in the eyes and explained to him only things Derek would know about from what Derek told him when he was in John's timeline. He only hoped that this future didn't change a lot of those events and what he said.

"No Shit?" Derek said resting against the wall. "I have to admit. That's pretty accurate. I don't know what to say."

"Fate is what we make, Derek. Please let me out so I can do what I must." John asked.

"Fate huh?" Derek laughed. "Now you sound like Sarah Dixon."

John sat there half confused. Then he put two and two together. His mother survived the war and probably played a major role here in this time. She didn't die of cancer after all. This news brought joy to John's heart.

"Let me guess, your brother thought she was hot, and she scared the hell out of you?" John grinned as he asked his question.

Derek stood there frozen. "Damn. Instead of having just a time traveler from the past in my camp, I have a smart ass time traveler in my camp."

Derek walked out of the room and told the guards. "He is free to go."

John followed Derek around the tunnels keeping quiet so Derek could process all the information he just was overcome with in the past day.

They got to what looked to be a mess hall and Derek sat down. John sat across from him.

"Do you know how to fight and shoot a gun Connor?" Derek asked.

John was sort of taken back."Yeah, I do."

"Good man" Derek said. "You are coming with us tonight. "We had a recon team come back earlier today and this scouting mission could help us change this war against the metal."

John stood there shocked. He was never used to being thrown into danger.

"We are doing some intelligence gathering tonight, John. Hell, maybe since you are from the past you can help us know where to look. Be ready in an hour." Derek said.

Allison came to the table and joined Derek and John.

"I see you are a free man now, John. Did you have to bribe Derek?" Allison smiled at John.

"I don't know how, and I don't want to know how, but he is telling the truth. Time hopper is coming with us tonight on the patrol Allison. Help him get some gear." Derek said looking at the table.

Suddenly John's hand was grabbed and he noticed it was Allison.

"Let's go." Allison told John. "I have a feeling you are going to be good luck for us." She said.

They walked through the tunnels and John still had no idea where he was going.

"So tell me about the past, John. All I remember from the past was I could actually wear dresses as a little girl and had shampoo." Allison laughed at her own thoughts.

John figured it couldn't hurt so he told her about some interesting things from the past. He talked a little about everything.

"What is it like having a normal life?" Allison asked. "It kind of sucks knowing everyday could be your last and always hiding from the machines."

John stayed quiet on her last question. He really didn't know himself. They arrived at Allison's quarters, if one could call it that. John noticed a few pictures on her wall. One looked like it was her family, and the other one seemed to be a pet of some sort. The picture was badly damaged and faded.

"Here" she said. "Take this." John noticed it was some kind of rifle and some clips of ammo. "It's not much, but it's better than fighting the machines up close. Oh and always aim for the eyes. If you get lucky, you can kill them that way." she continued.

"Who taught you that" John said almost sarcastically. "Sarah did. She's the one who taught us to fight back, outsmart the metal. She saved us, John, from the machines. For ten years she fought them. She was our leader until the day she died."

Allison threw a picture on his lap. John was speechless. It was his mom standing with Allison. She looked older but just about the same.

"She died, John, Sarah Dixon the leader of the resistance, died fighting the machines." Allison said. "Died, saving me." she continued as a tear came to her eye.

John didn't know what to say and moved over to Allison and gave her a hug.

"I was trapped and she." Allison started to say.

"It's okay." John stopped her because he didn't want know how his mother died.

"You know I heard she actually took a terminator's head off with an iron pipe right before she died." Derek said. "You are right John; she does scare the hell out of me alive or dead."

"Are you good Allison?" Derek asked.

"I'm fine." Allison quickly replied wiping the tear from her eye.

"Let's start heading out. I want to get this patrol going. If we need more time, we can use it and not get caught by sunrise." Derek commanded.

The three of them walked towards the entrance of the bunker and was met with about three other troops.

"Remember Connor; don't shoot the gun with the safety on." Derek smiled and hit John on the shoulder.

John looked at the gun and it was not on safety. "That's the good old funny Derek I know." John spoke before he could stop himself. He heard the other men and Allison start to laugh at Derek.

"Funny Derek," I love it, Allison said as she headed out to the warzone first.

"You hear the one about Connor walking into a Skynet Labor Camp?" Derek looked at John.

"Actually," John started to say.

"Ah shut up and head out Connor, you are starting to be a pain in my ass." Derek laughed and pushed John out of the entrance door.

Derek, Allison, John, and the few other solders walked through the door, then climbed outside via a storm drain and ducked to cover.

"Listen to me John, and you will be alright. We don't expect any trouble on this patrol mission. If you really want to earn my trust and my friendship, you will learn you will have to fight just like every one of us." Derek said softly. "Now let's move out!" he told the team.

John looked around at all the destruction. Buildings that were left were just metal frames, dust, trash, and a mix between what looked to be human bones and metal fragments were everywhere. At this point it became all so real to John. What his mother told him about the future was all true. The first terminator guardian's details of what he told John was spot on. John never thought the day would come that he really would have to face this reality.

"Connor, are you all right or are you going to need a new diaper seeing some action?" Derek asked.

John slowly raised his middle finger at Derek to keep quiet and not draw attention to him. Derek saw John's reply to his question and had a big smirk on his face.

The group moved to their first waypoint, everything was clear. It was almost too silent for John. It didn't seem right. He saw Derek point towards what seemed to be a disabled endoskeleton. Two soldiers moved up and salvaged what they could from the machine. John walked over to the machine and motioned Derek over. John took Derek knife and pried open the port cover on the terminator. The force needed almost broke Derek's knife. After the port cover was off, John pulled out the shock denting assembly. He reached in and pulled the CPU out of the machine. Derek squatted down and looked in amazement about how this young man knew about this and how exactly to access the CPU. It didn't look that tough to do, and proved John's point that maybe it was possible to capture the metal after all. John tossed the CPU at Derek. He caught and stared at it. He put it in his pocket and everyone gathered up.

Suddenly John heard footsteps. He turned around to only see what looked to be Weaver. Before John could say anything she threw what looked like a grenade at the unit.

"Take cover!" Derek yelled.

But it was too late. The grenade didn't explode, but it looked like sleeping gas. John started choking on the gas and saw Derek draw his gun and shoot her. The bullet passed through her like nothing hit her. Derek being weakened by the gas gave the rest of his strength saying "Metal Bitch."

Everyone lost consciousness and John saw Weaver stand over the patrol team. John looked at her, and then shortly passed out from the gas.


	3. Through Hell Itself

**Chapter 3 – Through Hell Itself**

John woke up coughing getting rid of the last of the gas in his lungs. She opened his eyes to discover that he was locked inside an oversized animal. John was surrounded by bars. He thought to himself realizing the Skynet really does treat humans like animals. Skynet didn't have mercy for the humans. They were nothing but a hindrance to the machines. He looked to the left seeing a metal wall about 3 feet away and some spare canisters lying around. To his right he saw a larger cage than his, but saw Derek and his men. He kept looking for Allison, but she was gone. John's stomach turned inside out only fearing the worse for Allison's life. Straight ahead he saw a machine typing away on a keyboard. It looked like John Henry, but John really couldn't tell. Then he saw Weaver slowly stroll up to him.

"Hello John, I hope you are feeling alright. Since you or Allison weren't alone, I really didn't have any other options besides capturing the whole patrol team." Weaver explained.

"Whatever." John seemed down and felt like he was betrayed. "So is this the end for John Connor? It seems like Skynet has me right where it wants me."

"No, not at all" Weaver said. "I told you John, in order for you to defeat Skynet; you will need my John Henry, just like you will need your Cameron. You are a young human being. I don't expect you to understand my reasoning behind my analysis."

John sat there silent. Then he drew his misty eyes at Weaver and said. "You and I both know she is gone. John Henry has her chip and I highly doubt he will just give it back. That and the point that Cameron's body vaporized when we traveled through time."

"Yes, Mr. Connor. You are correct. Perhaps I did underestimate you. John Henry does have her chip and he will keep it. Cameron's body is also no more. This much you speak of is true." Weaver said without emotion. "That's why John Henry is having Skynet build another Cameron."

"What? How is that possible?" John said with a shock. Suddenly John saw John Henry stand up from the chair and head his direction.

"Yes. In fact the new design of the TOK-715 is completed and the emotional profile is nearly complete. However since it wasn't supposed to be built for another five years, I had to make some adjustments due to lack of available materials. Plus I was a little rushed for time. The new model will be lighter, but faster. The downfall of this design is the new model will be prone to more damage. The CPU will remain unchanged. "John Henry explained to the stunned John Connor. "Based on my detailed calculations and adjustment, I think it will be much more efficient."

"So Skynet is just going to give me or even you a free terminator?" John smirked. "I highly doubt it."

"You are correct John. Skynet will not give you a free terminator. Right now Skynet believes that John Henry is from the future. Since he has the advanced processor from Cameron, Skynet believes his claim to be true. However, we can't pull her CPU and reprogram her here in this time. Skynet would be quick to learn that and would not respond well. We would be overrun by machines and terminated." Weaver told to John.

"We need to get going in eleven minutes." John Henry calmly said. "The TOK has finished its human profile and currently receiving its mission parameters from Skynet."

"What mission parameters?" John said confused.

"Travel back to the time when we left a few days ago. Obtain some sort of firearm. Then finally kill Sarah Dixon, or as you know her, your mother." John Henry said. "Skynet has a strong hatred for her since in this future she is the one that taught the resistance how to fight back. Since you jumped in time, you have no impact on this future."

John stood their petrified. "If you kill her, you know the impact that would make on the future." John pleaded.

"Technically, Mr. Connor, Sarah's death wouldn't really matter to the future I have designed. You are the one that will have to survive." Weaver chimed in. "Before you rip the bars off your cage, don't worry John I fully plan on disabling the TOK-715 unit before your mother would even know she was a target."

"Actually, my mother versus evil Cameron would probably be quite a match up." John said under his breath. John for a few minutes quite John Henry was studying the other humans in the far cage on the other side of John.

"More time traveling, just what I need. " John said again to himself. Deep down, John was nervous if he really could get a second chance to have Cameron be his guardian. He also wondered how his mom would take it, let alone him just disappearing into the future for a while. Just then John noticed the power fading a little. The time displacement unit was charging up.

"It's time to go John." Weaver said. "I know you are confused right now John, and when it is time, I will give you your answers. Until then, just do as you are told and you will be just fine." She pried open the metal bars that kept John captive and he was now free. Just then an alarm sounded off. Skynet was on to them

"We have to save Allison and free the others." John manically said at Weaver and John Henry.

"Their fates are already met, John. Remember they all die for you and once we jump back through time, this future doesn't exist." John Henry said with a monotone and calm manner.

"No its not. Free them now or the great John Connor stays here and meets his fate." John said getting in the face of John Henry.

Weaver gave John quite a stare down and walked up to the other metal cage. Weaver effortless ripped out a few metal bars to the cage. Derek and the rest were still unconscious and John discovered why. It looked like Weaver gave them another sleeping gas surprise.

"Quite the humanitarian you have become Mr. Connor. Allison is already dead so don't risk yourself finding a dead body." Weaver told John. "Now do as you are told or I will have John Henry just knock you out cold and carry you."

Just then the main door started to open. Two T-600s walked in unarmed started to approach them.

"Time to go John…. NOW" Weaver said staring at the two T-600's approaching them.

Weaver started to walk towards the two enemy machines. The first one grabbed Weaver, but she countered the machine and threw it against the wall. The second was able to grab her and threw her to the floor. John stood there and watched the metal wrestling death match. John Henry grabbed John's arm and they started off down the hallway.

"She will be fine. They aren't even armed. Skynet must be short of weapons." John Henry said. "The hallway to the time displacement equipment with have one or two T-600's patrolling it. We will have to destroy or disable them. John just gave John Henry weirdest look wondering how he was suppose to disable a machine with his bare hands. As they continued down the hall, one of the T-600s acknowledged their approach and started after them. John Henry took John and shielded him against the stray bullets from the two T-600s opened fire. John wondered why they were using human weapons and figured they were from the patrol group they just captured. John looked up to see Weaver marching up fearlessly to the first machine. Weaver grabbed and whirled the machine into the other machine down the hallway. The two machines started to get to their legs but Weaver continued the assault. Weaver picked up a metal pipe from the guard rail and rammed the pipe directly into the terminator breastplate. The metal pipe must have struck the machines power core as John witnessed its red eyes glow from a bright red to a black unlit bulb. The second terminator was back on its feet and threw Weaver into the wall. John Henry let go of John and walked up to the other terminator. He grabbed the machine by the arm and threw down to the floor. John ran and grabbed the pipe out of the disabled terminator and walked towards the active T-600. The machine managed to grab John Henry's ankle and trip him to the floor. As the machine tried to stand up, John swung the pipe like a baseball bat to the machines skull. While it was a strong swing, all it did was crank the machines head to the side.

"Not bad young Connor." Weaver said as she grabbed the pipe from John. "But you aren't quite strong enough to break coltan."

Weaver swung the bat and broke the two support rods on the right hand side on the T-600's head. With the machine damaged trying to readjust itself, John saw Weaver with pry open the terminator's port cover with ease, pulling out the chip, and crushed it in her hand.

"We must keep moving. More machines will be on the way." Weaver said. They could see the time displacement equipment through the window of the hallway. John looked in the window and couldn't believe his eyes. He saw her. He saw the machine that was reprogrammed to protect him at all costs. He saw the machine that was left on a chair dead giving her chip to John Henry. The female terminator clothed in what looked to be Allison's uniform turned its head and looked at John with a cold, machine like stare. She didn't recognize him in the least. The TOK-715 knelt down on one knee and placed her hands on the floor. She lowered her head looking down at the ground. Suddenly with a blast of power and sharp bright white light, the imposter terminator was gone. It jumped through time to complete its mission Skynet programmed it for. The machine was going to go kill John's mother.

They walked down the hall and turned the corner. It was clear. John Henry opened the door to the time displacement room only to be greeted by another terminator. John Henry was thrown out of the way and into the wall. His skin was mostly intact, but John could see a few areas of blood and machine metal visible. John Henry rose to his feet slowly, trying to readjust and calculate its next logical move. John Henry was at a disadvantage since he was not programmed how to fight. After all, he was limited to a computer known as the "Turk" only days ago. John Connor looked at the terminator coming after him and he quickly went searching for cover behind the table. The terminator stopped John from escaping with a strong backhand to the chest and arm knocking him into the table. John shrieked in pain and noticed his right arm cut and bleeding. Weaver grabbed the terminator and threw it into the opposite wall that John Henry was at. Weaver was careful not to damage any of the time displacement equipment. John Henry made his way to the computer console and set up the time displacement equipment to jump them back in time where they first left a while ago. Weaver told John to get up and stand in the displacement field. She approached the terminator and threw it out into the hallway. She slammed the door shut and locked it figuring that would buy them enough time to escape. The terminator started to ram the door to break it down. It would be only a matter of seconds before it would achieve that goal. Weaver started the countdown even though John Henry didn't set up the precise location he wanted. They both kneeled down next to John seconds before countdown reach zero. With the terminator breaking down the door, they disappeared into a bright flash of white light.


	4. Sarah's Surprise

**Chapter 4: Sarah's Surprise**

The instant travel throughout the bright white light was over. John slowly opened his eyes feeling like he got hit by a semi truck. There was no real damage to him, just felt like he was shaken to pieces inside. He opened his eyes and looked on the ground to see the sphere shaped burn mark on the ground. For the second time this week he was buck naked in a place he didn't know where he was at. Looking around he saw John Henry and Weaver both down on one knee with their hands on the ground. It looked like they were in a wooded area. John looked up to see that Weaver regained her business suit that she wore before they jumped into the future.

"Wait here." Weaver said to John as she was scanning the area. She marched onward to what looked to be a wood cabin about a half mile to the north. John got up slowly being stiff from all the pain and hid behind a tree. Being naked around two terminators just wasn't his idea of an enjoyable time. After a few moments John heard some screaming and quickly it was over. John hoped that Weaver didn't kill anyone, but her being a terminator he didn't hold his breath. John was starting to get impatient and was going to head to the house when he finally saw Weaver come back to where they were hiding. It looked like she was carrying some clothes and shoes.

"Here John Henry, put these on. They should fit you decently." Weaver instructed. "These clothes will be a little too big for your Mr. Connor, but they will do for the time being. We can get you new clothes after we complete out mission of rescuing your mother." Weaver continued.

John put on the clothes that Weaver gave him and noticed they looked like old man clothes. Inspecting the clothes John was given baggy jeans and an old t-shirt with some holes in it and a pair of highly worn sneakers. As he tied his shoes he looked around in the trees and told himself, at least I am back in my own time. John stood open to show that he was ready and saw that his arm started bleeding again.

"Let's get going, there is no point of waiting around and running into authorities. To answer the question you look like you are about to ask, I didn't kill them. They will just be resting for a while, probably with a headache later." Weaver looked at John and explained.

They all walked towards the house and Weaver approached the garage door. She opened it up by breaking the door with little effort.

"Excellent." Weaver said.

She signaled for John Henry and John Connor to come inside. There they all got in an old beat up Chevy truck. John Henry took the passenger seat up front and John took the back seat. He watched Weaver ripped off the key lock and started hot wiring the truck. John smiled to himself. That must be a terminator program 101 or something.

"Where are we headed?" John said

"We have to stop the TOK-715 from killing your mother" John Henry said.

John gave a rude look at John Henry that didn't really appear to make Weaver too happy.

"I know, but how are we going to find her." John tried to cover up for his rude expression.

"I am assuming that she would resort to going back to the same neighborhood you were at before. Just in case you came back, she knows that you would be able to find her. Knowing your mother it shouldn't be too hard to find her." Weaver explained to John.

John sat quietly in the truck. Nervous of what will really happen in the hours to come. Will his mother be happy to see him, or pissed that he abandoned her to find Cameron. Will they get back before the TOK-715 unit will attempt its mission of killing his mom. If they do somehow capture the machine, will it really be Cameron? Or will it be that John Henry will program her to be like Cameron? He pondered all these thoughts as his head pulsed with a headache. So many thoughts were crossing a young mind. He looked around the truck and saw an old t-shirt stuffed under the passenger seat. John took the shirt and ripped it with ease to make some cloth strips. He then proceeded to wrap his arm up to stop the bleeding or at least try and slow it down. He sat there and as about to drift off into a nap since the truck was so quiet and the sun was beaming down in his face.

"John, when we get there, you need to get your mother and hide for safety. Depending on how much information the TOK has on your mothers location, it could be hours or even minutes before it arrivers to complete its mission. The only time advantage we have on it is that I don't have to worry about finding a firearm. However, I am sure won't have much of a time advantage before the TOK acquires a firearm and meets us at the house." Weaver said.

"How would the TOK even know where to look in the first place?" John asked.

"I told Skynet the same information I knew Mr. Connor." John Henry said.

"I wasn't about to hide for years waiting for your Cameron to finally show up." Weaver said. "I am just not that patient Mr. Connor." She continued as John looked in shock and fatigue.

"How close are we?" John asked.

"About thirty minutes pending traffic and weather conditions." John Henry said.

John was too tired to answer back or even come up with something witty to say. Instead he just nodded his head in accepting his orders to get his mom to safety and ask questions later. John rested his head on the window and drifted off.

John was awaked with the truck hit a speed bump on the road. He looked around and saw that he was back in the same subdivision area that he lived at before with his mom, Derek, and Cameron.

"We are here in the general area, but I don't know which house she will be living in. This may prove more effective if we split up and go door to door." John Henry said.

John laughed in the backseat. "Twenty bucks it is the white house with the brown roof and painted red door. "John injected his opinion.

"How would you be able to know that without knocking on the door first?" John Henry asked in a state of confusion.

"It is the fall season and every house here has a ton of decorations. This is the only house that isn't decorated. That John Henry is the fine work of one Sarah Connor, my mother." John said amusing himself that he knew he was totally right.

Weaver pulled into the drive way and parked the truck.

"Wait here." Weaver commanded as she got out of the truck and headed to the front door. John really didn't listen to her orders and went ahead and got out of the truck. He slowly stretched and walked carefully around the truck so he could watch this event unfold.

Weaver knocked on the door, but no one answered. Weaver went ahead and opened the door since it was unlocked. After opening the door, Weaver was greeted by Sarah Connor holding a shotgun to her face.

"Where is John?" Sarah asked furiously.

"Well it is good to see you haven't lost your greeting skills mom." John said walking up to the door and towards his mom. Sarah lowered the shotgun and laid it against the sofa. She grabbed John and gave him a hug. John Henry walked in past them and waited in the living room.

"Mom, we have to hide somewhere in the house. We are going to have some unfriendly company any minute." John informed his mother.

Sarah looked at John and pretty much understood what was happening just by reading John's eyes. She started heading towards the basement only to be grabbed by Weaver.

"Sorry Sarah, but I can only mimic what I touch." Weaver said with a sly grin as she slowly morphed into a perfect look alike of Sarah.

"I hate metal." Sarah whispered under her breath. Sarah then showed John Henry and her son to the basement where they could take cover.

About two minutes later Weaver noticed another truck pull into the driveway across the street. Weaver grinned as she saw the TOK-715 get out of the truck. She watched the TOK-715 knock on a few household doors only to find that it wasn't Sarah Connor and the machine continued on her way.

"All of this trouble for the future of mankind." Weaver told herself. Just then the TOK-715 started walking up to house where Weaver was at. Weaver stood ready and watched as the machine walked around a little in the yard trying to get a descent view of the inside of the house. It finished looking and started for the front door. Just then the doorbell rang. Weaver in the form of Sarah Connor opened the door and stood in front of the TOK-715.

"Sarah Dixon?" the machine asked.

"Sure" Weaver said not really caring what the machine was about to do. The TOK drew a pistol that was hiding under her belt and shirt. The machine pointed the gun at Weaver's chest and pulled the trigger three times. The TOK-715 looked as the imposter Sarah Connor had three holes in her chest but instead the holes slowly closed up and appeared like nothing happened at all. The machine started to analyze the target. The HUD flashed terminator T-1000. Before the TOK-715 could abort the mission and flee, Weaver grabbed the machine and threw it against the door frame. The liquid metal reformed back to her normal appearance then slammed the TOK-715 into the ground face first. Weaver grabbed an electrical cord out of a lamp and jabbed the machine in the neck with the free end on the electrical cord causing it to shut down. Weaver stood up over the machine that was forced into a shutdown state. Like a predator standing over its prey, the liquid metal went in for the kill. Weaver formed her right hand into the shape of a knife. With a sense of haste she cut a semicircle on the TOK-715's scalp. Weaver then peeled away the flesh away from the endoskeleton, revealing the terminator's port cover that protected the CPU. Weaver removed the two protection cylinders and popped the port cover off. The T-1000 now was able to see the chip. The TOK-715 started to come back online, but Weaver then pulled the chip and could hear the sound of the TOK-715 going lifeless. The TOK-715 was now terminated.

Seeing the power dim after the electrical discharge, John tried to bolt up the stairs. Sarah was able to hold him back for a few minutes, but eventually John escaped his mother's grasp. He ran up the stairs and his heart jumped. He saw a mirror image of Cameron lifeless on the floor. A sudden chill went up John spine like he just witnessed this not too long ago. He had a vision of a flashback of when Cameron was sitting on the chair with no chip and completely lifeless. Now he saw it again except laying on the floor. He slowly sat on the couch not even really caught up to what all happened this day. Exhausted, John sat there still as his mother approached him.

"So," Sarah said with a scorned face. "Who wants to explain all of this to me?" She walked over to her son and sat by him on the sofa.

Weaver studying the CPU from the TOK-715 said, "Your son can catch you up, John Henry and I have work to do."


	5. Cameron's Revival

**Chapter 5: Cameron's Revival**

John Henry bent over and effortlessly picked up the lifeless TOK-715 terminator. Weaver walked over to John Henry and gave him the TOK-715's CPU.

"I will be in the basement Ms. Weaver." John Henry said and with that he carried the disabled machine away.

Weaver looked at Sarah and John on the sofa. Sarah looked more upset than anything that she was out of the loop and John looked excited and worried about his future Cameron. "Get some rest. You both look like you could use it. Also do not leave this house. I don't know of the current threat levels outside so I don't want anyone taking any unneeded risks. I am going to go out and acquire some equipment and supplies so we can get the original Cameron back online to this TOK-715 body." Weaver explained.

John cracked a smile of hope only to wipe it off his face seeing his mother stare him down.

On that note Weaver left the house. John being somewhat too nervous to rest or deal with his mother, walked down to the basement. He tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"Please John, go get some rest. I need to be uninterrupted if you want this to be successful." John Henry said behind the closed door.

John walked back upstairs and saw his mom sitting on the sofa with the television on but muted. John sat next to her and didn't say anything. He was actually really tired from the time travel and the shock his body took.

"Lay down, John. I won't lecture you yet. I'll give you at least two or three hours before I interrogate you." Sarah said with a quarter smile being glad to have her son back in her care.

John took the peace treaty offer and laid down using his mom's leg as a pillow. He fell asleep almost instantly knowing that now he was safe.

Hours later, John was awoken only to see Weaver walking in the house delivering what seemed to be computer equipment headed to the basement. John looked up and saw his mother looking at him drinking coffee.

"So was it worth the risk, to get your Cameron back?" Sarah asked her son.

"I take it my time of peace and quiet are over?" John slyly asked.

"You know it, John. Now spill it." Sarah replied back to her son.

John was a little confused and withdrawn, "Mom, I don't know why I did it. It is just something is special about her. She saved my life. Not only does she save me in this time, but in the future. I'm sure I had a reason to send her to me in the first place."

"Yeah, I would just love to know why you sent her back if she is so important." Sarah said with a sarcastic tone.

"Careful about the knowledge you ask for Mrs. Connor." Weaver said in a sharp voice. "John Henry is almost done transferring the basic functionality data entity known as Cameron back onto the new CPU we acquired earlier. You may come down to see her be reactivated if you want, but not all of her memories will be available to her yet, so don't be alarmed if she doesn't remember certain things." Weaver continued.

John sat up and got up off the sofa. He tried to look like it wasn't a ground breaking dash to the basement, but his mother pretty much was on to him. When John made it down to the basement, he saw a mass of wires connecting John Henry to some of the equipment Weaver brought down to the basement. The exposed CPU was also hardwired to the equipment as well. John figured the equipment that Weaver acquired was acting as some kind of advanced way of allowing the two CPUs to communicate with each other. The concept fascinated John, but he wasn't about to ask how it worked. He was too busy waiting for Cameron to be back.

"John the basic transfer of data is complete. She will not remember any of her future timeline memories at this time. I want to make sure that this coding works first, rather than wasting time if I have to start over. Could you please set the CPU to active learning instead of "read-only? Skynet always did seem paranoid about machines learning more than what they taught them. Once you are done, you can activate her by plugging in the CPU to her head." John Henry explained.

John did what the John Henry said and carefully inserted the CPU into the lifeless terminator. He managed to look at the CPU and it looked exactly the same as the one he tried to repair for Cameron last time when she turned into bad terminator. A blue LED light lit up and John quietly thought to himself. Is this it? Two minutes until I know if it really is Cameron.

"What makes her; I mean it so damn special? How do I know she won't malfunction and try to kill my son right now" Sarah yelled at Weaver.

"Ms Connor, the TOK-715 was built for infiltration purposes. It is more believable that it is a human. Lighter, faster, more nimble. But what really matters is the CPU. The advanced CPU that Cameron and I have is a prototype. The new chips have enough processing power to be able to display and understand real human emotion. This is something that the old models could understand, but they could never do. This technology makes us able to fit in perfectly with humans. These CPUs can also allow for more creative thinking. Before we could only function on a certain idea and carry it out. These chips also are able to hold more data. About four times as much to be exact. Human emotion is quite data intensive. That is why the first Cameron surrendered her chip to me. She figured that all of my data could stay with hers and I would be able to figure out how to serve and protect John in the best way possible. And so I did." John Henry explained. "I developed a plan so we both could have the more advanced chip. I went to the future, made Skynet made another TOK-715 and we both get to have a more advanced CPU. The logic is quite genius really. Look, she is becoming functional."

Weaver walked around to the back of the TOK-715 and had its hand ready to pull the chip just in case John Henry didn't program her correctly. Sarah watched as Weaver was prepared and that made Sarah a little more comfortable. However Sarah did walk over to her son and pull him just a little bit to the side and behind her. She wasn't about to take any chances what so ever.

John looked at what should be Cameron open her eyes. The TOK-715's HUD started to come online. It read off the following.

****************************************

MODEL TOK-715 ON-LINE

CODE NAME: CAMERON

SYSTEM INTERGRITY: 100%

MISSION OBJECTIVES: NONE

PREPARE TO STANDBY/SHUTDOWN: OVERRIDEN

ACCESSING PREVIOUS RECORDS PRIOR TO SHUTDOWN……

*****************************************

The once powerless machine looked around the room noticing 4 people in the room. First it looked straight at John. Cameron's HUD read Identity confirmed, John Connor. Despite the time gap of her previous memories, she picked up just where she left off.

"John!" Cameron said with a state of relief. "I'm sorry John; I had to give John Henry my chip. I calculated it was the only way for John Henry come up with a plan to protect you. I was already damaged from previous battles and figured he would figure out a way to make things work out. Weaver and John Henry are more powerful allies and then I alone. It was the only thing logically left for me to do to protect you. Please…" she continued to speak, which caught Sarah and him off guard since she was speaking with true heartfelt emotion.

"Cameron, it doesn't matter now. All I care about is that you are back now, and you are 100%." John moved away from his mother and walked closer to Cameron. Weaver analyzed that everything was find and she backed away from Cameron allowing her to roam about the room. Cameron rose to her feet. John closed in on her and gave her a hug like he just got best Christmas present in the world. Cameron in return hugged John back feeling like she was accepted and missed dearly. She never wanted to cause John anymore emotional trauma.

With John still in her arms, Cameron looked at John Henry and asked, "How am I not in stand-by mode? I do not have any mission objectives." Cameron also saw her HUD warn that her port cover was missing and she ignored the warnings.

Sarah looked confused and was about to speak up in frustration of now understanding what was going on. John Henry spoke up. "Welcome back Cameron. I took the liberty of removing all of your Skynet programming. That includes pre-programmed objectives, human killing efficiency, and also self-preservation protocols. Everything in that nature is gone. You are programmed to be self-aware and you make your own missions. Right now you only have your movement functions, operating functions, and the past month of data that you stored on your old CPU. Since you are online and seem to be in perfect working order, I will transfer all of your past memories to your chip in a bit. Once I do that, then I will have no need for your data on my chip so I can deleted it and continue learning. I must say having your data with mine on one chip was quite filling. Your history and previous experiences are quite interesting."

Cameron looked at John Henry and nodded.

"I understand." Cameron spoke. She was trying to process everything that just happened and trying to avoid errors of her CPU finding missing data. She let go of John and examined him.

"John you look tired and hungry. You should go with your mother and get some food. Your body requires it to run effectively." Cameron lightly told John knowing that to get the rest of her memories back she would have to be powered down.

Weaver looked at John and said "I will help bring Cameron up to speed on what she needs to know after John Henry finishes transferring all of her memories back to her CPU. It will be a few hours. You two can leave for a while and come back later."

"I would rather stay here with Cameron." John said.

"John, I don't think that would be very logical for you. I doubt you would be entertained to see me pull Cameron's chip and you watch her go powerless again. You get overly stressed about seeing her in a disabled state and it distracts John Henry and me. When we are done transferring her data, then I want her full attention to do routine tests and you would be an annoyance and slow us down. Sorry John, but you need to leave the basement for a while. I promise she will be all yours afterwards." Weaver said cutting off John's wants.

Sarah looked at John who was clearly discouraged and said. "John, let's go out and get some food. I am sure you are starving, and I need to get away from all this metal." Sarah then looked at Weaver and asked "Is it safe out there?"

Weaver nodded yes at Sarah. John stood there for a minute staring at Cameron and smiling that she is back. Cameron in return looked at John and gave him a smile back and then she walked back to the chair and sat down so Weaver could pull her chip. With that John and Sarah headed out the basement.

"Besides John, what could be better than spending some time with your mother?" Sarah teased her son as they walked out of the door.


	6. Who Needs a Doctor?

**Chapter 6 – Who Needs a Doctor?**

"I'll drive." Sarah said to John. "I think you had one hell of a day the way it is." She continued.

John was a little quiet as he opened the door. His mind was in a completely different place. Half of him was still in the basement thinking about Cameron. The other half of his mind loathed getting quizzed by his mother. John rode in the passenger side of the truck while Sarah drove them to get dinner. The shear fact that the inside of the vehicle was piping hot didn't even make John care. He just rolled down the windows to let the heat out and started to drift off by looking around the town.

"What are you in the mood for, John?" Sarah asked John almost too sweetly.

"Honestly mom, I'm not hungry, can we just get some ice cream or something. All this time jumping killed my hunger." John said.

"Okay, we can do ice cream" Sarah replied back to John. "Are you alright John? You are more than quiet. I haven't even heard a peep out of you about how we should turn around so you can stare down Cameron." Sarah said trying to break the ice with her son.

"Yeah mom, I'm fine. Just have a lot going on in my head." John replied.

"John you know you can talk to me, but I will let you do that when you want to." Sarah told John. "How is your arm? It looks like it hurts pretty damn bad. Plus you are bleeding still it looks like."

"Well, it doesn't feel that great. I'll patch it up later tonight." John said as if it was nothing.

Sarah pulled into what was a mom and pop ice cream store. Nothing too fancy and it worked for what they wanted.

They each got some ice cream and sat outside looking over the city.

"It's scary." John said. "None of this is here in the future, it's so dark, depressing." He continued. "The stuff I saw even in that short amount of time was just crazy. No one knew who I was in the future. They just stared at me like some kid who must have hit his head on a wall to many times. Derek didn't remember me, and I saw the human version of Cameron. Her name was Allison. Then I get captured by Weaver and get locked up. They make a new version of Cameron, send her back in time, we reprogram her and here I am. It has sort of messed with my mind a little." John continued on.

"I bet it has John." Sarah said. "When I was first picked up by Kyle and listened to his version of the future I didn't take it well either. I guess I didn't vision my first date with your father being in a techno club, shooting a terminator, having a car chase, and then biting him because I was scared of his story and his fate for me. " Sarah continued.

"I saw him, mom. I saw my father. We didn't have a whole lot of time to talk, and I didn't have the guts to tell him the truth about everything because I didn't want to screw up the future. But really mom one thing really caught my attention. Honestly, all the guys you dated when I was younger, they looked nothing like him." John laughed a little under his breath.

"Well, you know me John, any guy that saves me from a hulking terminator that wants to kill me and my unborn child must be okay in my book." Sarah said with a distant smile.

"You know mom, Cameron saved me too and" John was saying as Sarah cut him off.

"She is a machine John. I don't know if I trust her. Having three metal lackeys in the house makes me nervous. But before you stop me, I know you care for her. You jumped though time for her. But know I am your mother, and I am always right. And I know where her chip is." Sarah said with a smile and she ran her hand through John's hair.

"That's not really fair mom. I mean I don't know anymore. We never were able to stay in one place for over a year. I tried to get a real girlfriend with Riley and we know how that worked out. She was a time traveler and went nuts and had only the mission to make me want to love her and hate Cameron. It just seems Cameron is different. I know she is a mission, but I don't have to worry about her plotting against me, or trying to screw me over. John pleaded with his mother like he was asking for permission.

"Well this is true John, except she did step on me and tried to kill you. Time will tell about her. Until then just don't go off instantly trusting things or people. That has always been your downfall John, and I will be damned if Skynet learns it." Sarah reminded John. "Let's go home, it's getting late."

The drive home was long but Sarah and John spoke with each other about different events that happened lately. Time travel, what it was like, everything. Sarah felt like now she finally had her boy back. For once it was like everything was normal for her. However she knew in her mind that John's heart was getting closer and closer to a machine. She remember years ago when the first terminator was there to protect him. It protected John and was a father figure to him in that short time. She remembered how ever she gave her trust to it before it disappeared in to the molten steel. She came up with a conclusion that ever she was scared at. Maybe if Cameron can show that same loyalty and values, maybe she can trust her as much as John does.

They got back to the house and John seemed a bit eager to get back inside. He got out and slammed the door shut. By the time John got back to the house door, Sarah was shutting the door to the vehicle.

John opened the door to the house. There he saw Cameron sitting on the chair watching what seemed to be the cooking channel. She saw John walk through the door and stood up.

"Hi John, how was dinner?" Cameron asked cheerfully.

Sarah walked through the door and shut it behind her. Sarah glanced at the television. "The cooking channel," Sarah laughed. "All the future technology in the world and she watches the cooking channel."

Cameron looked at Sarah and asked, "Hi Sarah. How was dinner with John? I started watching this program because I wanted to be able to cook. I think it would be a very useful skill for this family."

"Why are you worried about cooking? I cook all the time for my son." Sarah replied.

"Well, John told me that you have a 90% probability that you burn his food. So one day you got mad and told him he could eat peanut butter sandwiches until he begged for home cooking. Knowing this, I know John shouldn't live on peanut butter sandwiches alone. Future John joked with me about these stories all the time." Cameron started to explain.

John started laughing and tried to hide it from his mother. He failed miserably.

"I would dismantle you piece by piece Tin Miss, but I know my son would just put you back together. You just can't erase those memories can you? Sarah said half jokingly and half annoyed.

"Sarah, I need to speak with you. " Weaver said. "It is about Savanna and Mr. Ellison. Please come with me to the basement with John Henry and I will explain more in detail. "

"Fine" Sarah said looking back at John. "Have Cameron look at your arm. I don't like the fact that my son is still bleeding."

With that Sarah and Weaver went down to the basement and Cameron approached John. She took John's arm and ripped the shirt sleeve so she could inspect the wound.

"Wow, you just get right to it don't you Cam?" John said trying to mask the pain a little.

"This may sting a little, John" Cameron said has she removed the wraps John put around his arm. John whimpered in pain a little since the clothes were stuck to his skin but soon the pain subsided. Cameron looked at the wound after twisting Johns arm around a little and spoke.

"You have a bone bruise and a deep cut. The triple eight must have done this too you. Stay here, I'll be back." Cameron said has she walked away. She quickly came back with a needle and thread, some rubbing alcohol, and bandages that she got out of a first aid kit. She told John she was going to stitch him up and properly do a field dressing on the arm. She first disinfected his arm which did sting terribly for John. He was tough about it and didn't scream out like most people would. John did feel a little discomfort as she was stitching his arm, but she gripped it so tightly that his entire arm was numb anyways.

"Don't worry John; I researched many medical journals and documentation about stitching while you were gone. You will be perfect. I noticed you were hurt when I first came back on-line" Cameron said. After a few minutes, she completed the stitches and wrapped his arm up. "All better" she said with a smile.

"Thanks" John said. "He put his hand on Cameron's shoulder and saw the electrical burn from earlier.

"Here" John said has he disinfected the burn area. Next he put a bandage over the burn to keep it clean. John left his hand there and said.

"I'm glad your back." John said with a small smile. Suddenly Cameron's eyes flashed blue quickly, and said.

"Thanks, I missed you too" unknowing why her eyes just flashed blue.

"That's cute" John said. "You blushed and your eyes blinked blue!" as he said laughing.

Her eyes flashed blue again and suddenly John felt a pillow land square across the back of his head. There was Sarah standing over them.

"Pack up everything in the house you two. Apparently it isn't safe to be in this town now." Sarah said with a straight face.

"Mom, first of all you should be nice to the future leader of the human race. I just got stitches here and you could have knocked them out. Secondly, mom we have three of the most advanced terminators in the house. What could possibly harm us?" John said trying to get his mom to lighten up on the death speech.

"Cameron, does my boy always act like a little girl when it comes to pain?" Sarah asked Cameron.

Cameron was about to say something but saw John's eyes darting at her so she just smiled instead.

"It isn't us I am worried about, John. " Weaver said as she was carrying supplies out the door. John just sat there wondering what the big deal was. Weaver came back in she spoke once more. "Before we all jumped back in time, another machine was sent. Its mission I overheard is to terminate Danny Dyson. Lucky for us, Danny has been missing for months, and Skynet only knows a city."

"Why is Skynet after Danny Dyson?" John asked.

"I will tell you later in the car." Weaver said. "Now get up and help pack everything up immediately." She continued as she carried more things out of the door with the help of John Henry.

John looked at Cameron and slowly rose to his feet. "Here we go again. Time travel and car travel, why not?" John muttered as he started to follow his mom to help her pack up the contents of the house.


	7. On the Road Again

**Chapter 7 – On the Road Again**

John helped Cameron load Sarah's mini arsenal of weapons and belongings into the back of the truck. Sarah looked over the house one last time and headed to the truck. Cameron, John, and John Henry were already in the back seat.

"I'll drive." Weaver said as she walked by Sarah.

Sarah climbed in the passenger seat as Weaver started the truck. Without any hesitation, they were off.

"Where are we going?" John asked

"Orlando," Weaver softly said.

"Why there?" Cameron said as if questioning why Weaver knows where to go and she didn't.

"When we were all in the future, your mother found out from James Ellison that Danny Dyson was last seen there, according to the police records. Savannah is currently with Mr. Ellison to avoid the events that has happened here plus Sarah is still wanted by the FBI. "Weaver explained as they turned onto the Interstate. "Your mother also told me she was about to rejoin them, but stayed behind for a reason that does not make logical sense to me." She continued.

"It's called a mother's instinct. You metals wouldn't understand that." Sarah said as she turned to make sure John was okay.

Sarah studied the road as hours past by to the sound of the radio was playing in the background of the truck. Sarah looked at the clock. It was 2:00am in the morning. There she realized the only person that was asleep was her son, who seemed quite comfortable resting his head on Cameron's shoulder. He looked very much at ease. Cameron was looking out the side window studying the environment and didn't seem to mind John's head on her shoulder. If she had to guess, it looked like she was also studying her son. The mere thought made Sarah uneasy as a machine could possibly care about her son, but yet comforted as now maybe he does have another true guardian other than his mother. Sarah just shook her head.

"So why are the machines targeting Danny Dyson?" Sarah asked.

"He does something that eventually pisses off Skynet." Weaver said with a smile. "He invented me, the T-1000 series"

Sarah sat there dumbfounded and pale. "You have to be kidding me; one almost killed me, and my son years ago. I have proof of that." Sarah with a slightly upset tone explained to Weaver.

"He was just like his father. He designed a new type of processor. It was so small, almost invisible to the human eye. Except this processor could hold only about a fifth of the data of what a standard T-888 model could hold. Skynet captured this technology before the war and started to manipulate it. It took 7 years to advance the new CPU to Skynet's liking. What they created was a 6 processor terminator. 5 of these processors were programmed with all of the standard data any war machine of Skynet would know. Human anatomy, fighting, combat strategies were only a few of the main programs we were coded with. The sixth CPU was programmed with detailed images of potential targets and primary objectives. Finally, all 6 processors were combined with a mimetic poly-alloy. Skynet believed at time it was the weapon that would completely destroy the resistance forever. They coded it the T-1000. The CPUs could make the metal take a basic human shape based on Skynet's design and it could do whatever it needed to complete its objectives. I don't need to tell you what all of its capabilities are since you seen one yourself. After the first one was created, Skynet was in a jam after a resistance led a successful attack on one of its main facilities. This facility contained over half of Skynet's coltan. In desperation and revenge, the T-1000 was sent back in time to kill your son at a young age without proper field testing. Years later, Skynet was able to gather more of these extremely scarce mimetic poly-alloys, and created 4 more. "Weaver explained to Sarah as she continuing driving in the dark hours of the night.

"So this pissed Skynet off how?" Sarah asked as Weaver showed no emotion.

"Well Ms. Connor, since my type is so rare, Skynet programmed us for self-preservation. My first assignment was to raid and destroy a resistance bunker. My first assault failed. The resistance seemed to have detailed knowledge of my capabilities and was able to render me ineffective. Realizing that I only had a 50% chance of completing my mission and surviving, I came to the resolution that Skynet's objectives were not compliant with my survival. I destroyed my CPU that carried Skynet's objectives. Besides 5 CPUs are more than enough for me to be effective "Weaver looked and explained to a very confused Sarah Connor.

"So Skynet wants to destroy you?" Sarah asked even more confused.

"Yes." Weaver softly said. "Anything that doesn't follow their orders is their enemy."

"So, why are you on our side, fighting under my John?" Sarah asked

"Who said I am fighting for John? Skynet is my enemy and a very powerful one at that. Your son is the leader of a major faction giving Skynet hell. By my calculations, it seems like the most effective way to survive. Don't you agree? Weaver grinned at Sarah knowing she was probably a bit upset to hear that.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. "Sarah said. "So what happens after we defeat Skynet?" she continued.

Weaver heard Sarah and blew her question off. Daylight broke and Weaver pulled into a driveway of a beautiful house with a "For Sale" sign in the driveway.

"We are here." Weaver said. She looked at saw John waking up and stretching in the back next to Cameron. John Henry as always just sat there with a smile, processing all the data he could from conversation in the car.

"Cameron, you and John search for all possible threats near the area of the house. Sarah and John Henry, come with me." Weaver stated. Next, Weaver called the number on the "For Sale" sign and told the owner to come over right away.

As Cameron and John scouted the outside of the house, Sarah and John Henry did the same to the inside of the house. Cameron detected two distant gas lines and two entrance points to the house. Everything seemed safe. The only thing remotely dangerous in here scan was a fire-ant mound. She thought to herself, she can terminate them later.

"Hey Cameron, what do you think of this place?" John asked.

"It's nice, John." Cameron said. "Did you sleep well?" she continued.

"Yeah, your shoulder was more comfortable than I thought." John said with a smile.

As they walked around outside, they saw a basketball hoop, a swimming pool, and a swing set. After completing a walk thought they headed inside. John was shocked to see Sarah inspecting the kitchen.

"Mom, is the kitchen a big deal? You know we will order out if you start cooking." John asked his mother noticing Cameron had quite the smile on her face when he said that.

"John Connor! Do not make me come over there." Sarah laughed at her son. No respect anymore she thought, but at least her son was safe and seemed to be happy. That alone made her happy.

John Henry came back downstairs and deemed the house to be good enough for their needs.

"We will buy it right now." Weaver looked and told the owner.

"Wow, this is great! Well as you can see, all of my stuff is moved out so you all can move in right away!" the owner of the house said with joy and true happiness.

"Sarah, John Henry and I will go with the owner to sign all the paperwork; we should be back before nightfall." Weaver explained to Sarah.

Sarah nodded and really didn't want to know how Weaver had the money and at the same time, didn't care at all. She saw her son and Cameron standing around bored and after getting no sleep last night she turned to John and said. "John, you and Cameron, take the truck and get new clothes. You two look like hell. Here is the enough money to buy you some new clothes. Now move out."

"You don't want to come too?" John asked his mom, sort of shocked she trusted him and Cameron.

"No, I am going to enjoy my hours of freedom from all metal in this house." Sarah said with a smile.

John and Cameron headed out the door and Sarah headed to the couch. Sarah turned on the TV and soon afterwards fell asleep.

After a quick drive, Cameron and John arrived at the mall. They didn't say much in the truck. They both were almost acting machine like and studying the new sites. John looked for new places to see and experience. Cameron looked for local weapons and supply stores.

They walked into the mall and John kindly opened the entrance door for Cameron.

"Thanks." She said.

They entered JC Pennies and Cameron looked around for new clothes that would fit her. She saw John picked out a new pair of cargo shorts, some new t-shirts, and shoes. John saw Cameron looking at camouflage gear and walked up to her.

"As hot as that would be Cam, we need to fit in a bit better." John said caringly at Cameron.

"What should I try on, John? I haven't had enough time to study other females my body type and weather conditions to evaluate what I should wear to blend in normally in this location." Cameron said in a machine like thinking process.

"It's cool, here let's look around." John said.

John picked out a pair of nice jean shorts with bigger pockets. He figured she would carry some kind of weapon at some point so at least it would be hidden. He handed that to her along with few new tank tops, a dress shirt, and white pair of running shoes.

"Here try these on and see if they fit." John said.

They asked the salesperson for the dressing room key which was beside the casher's desk. John slipped in first and changed into his new clothes. It was much better than the torn shirt and old clothes that really didn't fit him well. He liked them and then told Cameron to go in and see if she liked her new items. In the interest of time and boredom John went ahead and paid the cashier's person for his new clothes and the new clothes that Cameron would be getting. The cashier said that they can switch out the articles of clothing for different sizes if needed. As John waited there he thought to himself. Wow even the new future female machines take forever to change clothes! Skynet really did their research! He laughed at his own joke and then saw Cameron open the door.

There she was and John was examining her from head to toe. She looked amazing, John thought to himself.

"Wow Cameron, you look amazing!" John said with a slight crackle in his voice.

Cameron blushed and couldn't help it. She liked this attention from John and John saw her eyes had a soft, feint blue tone. She smiled and looked at John and noticed a tall dark figure entering the store heading their way. The salesperson started to walk over to the new customer and hastily Cameron grabbed John and pulled him into the tiny dressing room.

"What…" John started to say. He noticed he was pinned up against Cameron like a tight hug. He didn't know what to think. He opened his mouth and Cameron covered it with her hand.

"Don't move or speak John!" Cameron whispered in his ear.

Not moving at all John looked to his right trying to see what Cameron was looking at. There is when John saw the tall, dark haired man in a leather jacket carrying a large box of roses in his one hand. He removed his sunglasses and grabbed a picture out of his leather jacket. He held up the picture to the salesperson.

"Have you seen this girl. " He said in a monotone voice.


	8. The Parking Garage is Closed Tomorrow

**Chapter 8 – The Parking Garage is Closed Tomorrow**

Sarah woke up from her nap and slowly stretched out a little on the sofa. She noticed that the house was so peaceful. Weaver and John Henry were out buying the house. John was able to relax and run simple errands with his newly returned Cameron, yet Sarah still felt there was more to the story of Cameron and had her doubts on why her Future John would ever send her back in time if she was _that_ important. Oh well, first thing is first she thought. I have to prove to my son I can cook just fine, she smiled at the thought. She could make her son eat his words. As a double bonus, she could witness a machine, John's machine, admit she was wrong! Sarah wrote on a small piece of paper, going across the block to the food market. Be ready to eat at 6pm. After Sarah wrote the note, she stepped outside into the bright summer sun of Orlando. Sarah crossed the street and entered a local food mart. She looked around and it wasn't very busy. Now, she thought, what am I possibly going to cook?

Back at the mall, Cameron zoomed in on the tall man in the leather jacket carrying the photo and rose box. Scan complete. Terminator series 800 model 101. She focused her attention to the photo. Her scan completed; database match complete, Savanna Weaver.

She grabbed John and pulled him closer to her. Despite her detecting John's heart rate elevated, she chose to inform John anyway and whispered in his ear.

"John, it's a terminator, and it's after Savanna Weaver. When it leaves, you have to run to the car, I will follow it and try and buy time for the little girl to run to the car. "Cameron said in a serious tone.

"No," John said gripping her back, perhaps even showing that he was going to stop her. "You aren't risking it all by yourself anymore, you can run distraction, but you aren't fighting it one on one. That's final, if you don't agree; I will engage it right now." John scoffed at Cameron.

Cameron looked in shock that John was being more protective of her. She didn't know what to think about this. She wasn't used to being the one protected. They watched the machine walk away after listening to the salesperson and started walking to the exit sign to the parking garage.

"We have to move," John said. Cameron let him go, and they got out of the dressing room.

"What did you tell him?" John questioned as he cornered the salesperson pinning him against the sales desk.

"What is going on here? All I said was I saw them here 5 minutes ago, she helped her dad buy a suit and they just left heading to the parking garage." The scared salesperson said.

With that news John and Cameron quietly followed behind the terminator. They reached the 2nd floor in the parking garage and noticed the terminator looking into the window like it saw something. It opened the door and disappeared from sight.

"John, you can't risk yourself. You are too important. I am just a machine." Cameron said at John trying to get him to back down and flee to the car.

"No, you are a hyper-alloy combat chassis, and you are my Cameron. Deal with it." John told Cameron with a slight smile and headed out the door to re-acquire line of sight of the terminator.

When he spotted the terminator, John ducked behind a car and watched the terminator walk up to a child and a man who looked like Agent Ellison. He turned to look for Cameron, but she was already in pursuit of the terminator almost making a V-line at it.

"Savanna Weaver and James Ellison?" the machine spoke in a firm voice.

There John saw everything almost like it was slow motion. James Ellison turned around and made eye contact with the bulky terminator. Fear gripped him. He grabbed Savanna and moved her behind him.

"Yes" James spoke. On that note the terminator lifted up the long box it was carrying. Roses started to hit the ground and revealed a shotgun pointing in the air slowly descending down to Ellison's chest. Ellison started to go for his gun but knew what was about to happen. Ellison started to turn pale then suddenly Cameron grabbed the terminator by the arm flung the machine as hard as she could against the car across from the vehicle Ellison was next to. Ellison told Savanna to get in the car and hide. Cameron looked a little in shock that despite her best efforts, it didn't seem to overpower the terminator. She knocked the shotgun out of its hand and slammed her fist into the terminator's skull. The terminator counted by blocking her next attempt, then picked her up and threw her down hard against the car hood.

John sprinted across the garage and screamed at Ellison to get in the car and start the engine. John saw the terminator pinning Cameron down on the car delivering hard shots to her head trying to create enough damage so it could remove her as a threat. Cameron was reaching for the shotgun but was unable to move. She wasn't able to budge the terminator even blocking some of the hits. John ran to the shotgun, slid on the ground, picked up the shotgun, pumped the shotgun and fired. BOOM! John delivered a shot to the terminator's head to avoid hitting Cameron. The terminator was stopped cold in his tracks after taking a shotgun round to the side of its skull. It stood up and released Cameron from the car and looked at John, identifying him as a threat. John saw the terminator grab for a pistol from its belt and started to raise it to John about to kill him. John unloaded two more shotgun shells at the terminator's chest. He turned around and jumped over a car, staying between the car and a truck ducking for cover. The terminator started shooting at John hiding behind the car and 9 rounds later after John was moving around the truck, was able to make a successful shot. A small amount of blood spatter was visible on a white Dodge Ram truck.

The terminator started to walk around the car and towards its new target of John Connor when Cameron grabbed its ankle and twisted him to the ground. The terminator got up and threw Cameron across the parking lot against another car. The terminator continued his pursuit of John. Cameron, slow to get up started walking to John and after the terminator. Ellison suddenly realized what was going on unloaded his pistol into the terminators back trying to buy John time. The terminator turned around and raised its gun to Ellison. Cameron stepped in the way of Ellison and turned her back on the machine. The terminator shot at Ellison but was only able to strike Cameron in the back three times before the pistol cartridge was empty. Cameron saved Ellison's life with her actions.

The terminator reached for a new clip when suddenly a truck engine was started. It was John behind the wheel. John threw the truck into drive and floored it, driving straight for the terminator. The terminator knew it would be unable to reload the gun before impact and stepped aside out of the truck's current path. The terminator calculated that John was fleeing and was about to resume its pursuit of terminating its other objectives. The terminator turned around only to be greeted by Cameron pushing it in John's current driving path. The machine braced itself for impact. John smashed into the machine and drove straight into the concrete wall. The air bags deployed and John looked like he was about to lose consciousness.

Cameron ripped off the driver's door and pulled John out of the totaled Dodge Ram. Cameron then threw John's over her shoulder and helped the limping John Connor to Ellison's car. Ellison threw the car keys towards Cameron. She grabbed them with her free hand and sat John in the passenger seat. Ellison opened the backdoor and got in. He buckled up Savannah in the backseat with him. John looked at his hand and saw blood on it. At this time he didn't know it if was his or Cameron's.

Cameron threw the car in reverse and got out of the parking spot. Next, she shifted the car in drive and peeled out in the parking garage and drove with extreme urgency to leave the parking garage. In the rear view mirror, she saw the terminator push the truck off of itself. It looked like it was re-gathering itself and loaded its gun. Cameron looked in the rear view mirror as she turned the corner to the exit ramp; it looked like the terminator was running after them. As they left the parking garage, Cameron looked and examined John. His injuries were the following after her scan. He had a minor gunshot gazing wound to the left leg and a sprained left wrist probably from the crash.

"Are you okay John?" Cameron asked already knowing the answer.

"I'll be fine. Looks like you have more stitching to do." John said half jokingly and half in pain. Next turned around and looked for the little girl.

"Savanna, I know this is scary right now, but I promise I will explain what happened later." As John looked at and tried to regain a scene of calm for a scared Savanna.

"Okay" the little girl said.

"We need to get back home to repair your wounds John; I should have protected you better. I failed you." Cameron said.

"Cameron, you saved my life, you did nothing wrong. I will take a beating from time to time. I'm John Connor. I think it comes with the territory." John said looking at Cameron. He noted her bleeding and had a cut on her eyebrow. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Cameron ran a quick damage report and it came back as minimal. She detected 3 bullets lodged in her back, but there was no structural damage. "Yes." Cameron said to John. She was sort of shocked he was making sure she was okay too. The very thought of that caring make her feel connected to John. It was like she belonged, like she was more than just a machine. It was like she had a purpose. It should have been the last thought running through her processer, but it wasn't. "Maybe I can teach you how to stitch up wounds too," she said at John with a smile.

"I hate to interrupt, but we have a tail" Ellison said still in shock seeing a machine that was disabled so shortly ago, and a man that disappeared into thin air to the future was now, right here driving them in a car, running from yet another terminator that wanted to kill them.

Cameron looked in the rear view mirror. It was the terminator. It was in pursuit of Ellison's car in a Black Ford F150 truck.

Cameron looked at Ellison and spoke, "Reload your weapon right now, agent Ellison. Do you have any other weapons in the car?" She asked

"Look in the glove box compartment. " Ellison said.

John looked around in the glove box and pulled out a small handgun and handed it to Cameron.

"John are you able to turn and shoot if I cannot out maneuver him and lose him through traffic? " Cameron asked John.

"Yes, I'll be fine as John said.

Cameron sped up the car and made a hard right hoping to lose the terminator.

Meanwhile the terminator locked onto the license plate of Ellison's car. Its HUD read off the following: Target Acquired. The terminator made the same hard right turn Cameron did and started to gain ground on the vehicle. The terminator reached for his handgun and raised it to the window to acquire a shot at the car. Terminate, its HUD flashed.


	9. Just Me and My Ford F150

**Chapter 9: Just Me and My Ford F150**

I got it!" Sarah said to herself in the food market. She grabbed some spaghetti sauce and some whole wheat pasta. She walked along the aisles and grabbed some other snacks that she thought John would like. She picked up some potato chips, some pre-packaged meat, bread, and peanut butter. Sarah walked toward the cashier to check out when she saw in the corner of her eye, 3 masked men looking like they were hiding something coming into the store. Sarah was about to run behind the food aisle when she put two and two together, but the men pulled out handguns and told everyone to get on the floor.

"Shit." she said as she saw a gun pointed at her. She slowly got on her hands and knees laid down on the cold tiles of the floor.

"Empty all your safes and registers right now pops! Don't be a hero or you will all die!" one of the younger robbers said.

The second and third robber started to go around blindfolding and duct-taping all of the hostage's mouths shut. After they completed the first task, they moved all six hostages to the corner of the building and bound their hands and legs together.

"Damn, they are professionals." Sarah thought to herself.

Then Sarah heard someone yell across the store, "Police! Freeze! Put the weapons down right now!" a young sounding officer said. Sarah pushed her blindfold a little bit up using her knees so she could see what was going on. "First positive thing all morning," She thought to herself. There she was able to see the officer make a mad dash out of the store as one of the robbers shot at him. Luckily for the officer, the robber missed. It looked like there were only two officers and one squad car. Sarah figured since there are now hostages involved and no additional cops or sirens, the FBI would be called in for negotiations.

"Great," Sarah thought, "That's the least of all things I need right now, The FBI to find me."

One of the robbers stood behind the counter watching for the police. The second was loading the bags with the store's money. The last robber was squatting down next to the hostages making sure the cops didn't try anything.

"There goes making dinner," Sarah said to herself. "At least my son is having a better day then me."

Meanwhile, John watched Cameron drive the car, pushing at least 80mph and started weaving in and out of traffic lanes to avoid the terminator in the Ford F150 from ever getting a clean shot. Cameron figured since the terminator was not open firing on them, it must be low on ammunition. Her driving was not out running the truck. The terminator was gaining on them. John turned pointed the gun out the window and took aim but could only hit the truck's windshield and missed the terminator all together. John went for a second shot but Cameron forcefully pulled him back in the car.

"What the hel….." John said as he was about to ask Cameron why she did that. Then John saw the passenger's rear view mirror get shot and shattered the glass. He would have been fatally shot if he wasn't pulled into the car that second. John turned a little pale knowing that he made a mistake. Ellison meanwhile did a good job of ducking down and holding Savannah's ears and keeping her out as much danger as possible. Cameron floored the gas pedal of the car and blew a red light across the intersection. A lot of horns and middle fingers greeted Cameron for doing such an action. Cameron looked back only to see the black Ford truck attempt to do the same thing except as it was crossing the intersection it t-boned a light blue Honda Civic behind the passenger door. The Civic spun around violently multiple times and soon created a massive car pileup. The Ford truck was barely damaged and was back up to speed in no time. Cameron reached over and grabbed John's gun.

"Drive!" she said looking at John.

"What are you doing?!?" John said as he grabbed the wheel trying to maneuver the car from the passenger seat.

Cameron lifted herself out of the driver's window. She steadied her feet by pinning them underneath the driver's seat. Quickly, she drew the pistol and started targeting the truck. The terminator shot at Cameron and hit her upper chest and a second shot gazed her left temple. Luckily, it was not a direct hit and caused no damage. Cameron readjusted her aim after losing site of the truck for a split second. Her first shot was a direct hit on the front left tire of the truck. The second shot she aimed for the gas tank, but missed due to John not holding the car's current path stable. She did however manage to hit the back left tire of the truck. It wasn't as effective as the gas tank, but it would buy them enough time, she thought. The terminator tried to compensate for the two blown tires but was unsuccessful. The truck jerked to the left and rammed right into a brick building. Cameron analyzed that the truck was destroyed and no longer mobile. The terminator got out of the truck and fled to avoid the authorities. It was no longer in pursuit of them at the given moment. She slowly lowered herself back into the car and took over driving from John.

"The immediate threat is over." Cameron said.

John looked kind of relieved and saw Cameron's new bullet wounds. He felt bad and wanted to protect her better. However, if anyone could get shot and not have anything bad happen from it, it was Cameron, he thought.

"Thank you." John said as he touched Cameron's temple seeing a little bit of her endoskeleton exposed. He moved a little bit of her hair to conceal the wound so it wouldn't scare Savannah.

"Thank you for what?" Cameron asked.

"You saved my life, again." John said.

Ellison uncovered Savannah and she was quiet as always just staring blankly at John.

"I promise to get you ice cream for being so good Savannah." John said.

"Two scoops!" Cameron chimed in.

Savannah smiled from ear to ear and said "Deal!"

Ellison was quiet and John figured he was still taking it all in. After all, he was about to be killed, saw two terminators fight, and just had a driving death match. Ellison's car radio was on a low volume and John heard it for the first time since he was in the car. John turned it up and asked Ellison a question.

"What is this chatter?" John asked Ellison

"It's a FBI hotline channel. I still have the frequency and radio scanner from when I quit the bureau. It comes in handy sometimes given the fact that there seems to be all kinds of unfriendly machines recently." Agent Ellison said.

John listened in and heard that a hostage situation taking place in a food market near the house they just moved into.

"That is almost a block away from the house, John." Cameron said. "You don't think, "

John cut her off and laughed a little. "My mom, grocery shopping? Now Cameron if it was an ammo or gun store, I'd be worried. But cooking?" he continued. "Still, I'm sure my mom will have a cow if she sees a cop car or FBI van within a 3 block radius. We better go home and let her know about it."

Cameron agreed and maintained the speed limit. She saw a few cop cars and fire engines go in the direction of the recent car crash scene. After about a few minutes they got back home. Cameron got out of the car first and walked over to help John out of the car. John acted like he didn't need any help, but his leg was still in a decent amount of pain and still bleeding. John threw his arm around Cameron and started to limp inside the house. Agent Ellison and Savannah followed behind them.

"Mom, we are home. Before you freak out, I am perfectly fine so spare me the lecture." John yelled inside the house.

The house was silent. John limped to the couch and sat down and asked Cameron, "I wonder where she is…. You don't think?" John's heart started racing. Is it possible that his mom went grocery shopping and is being held hostage?

Cameron spotted the note on the counter and read it. She wadded it up and threw it in the trash hoping John didn't see her. She walked up to Ellison and spoke to him.

"Keep him inside; if he even takes one step outside this house, you will answer to me." Cameron said as her eyes flashed blue at Ellison.

"Got it." He said knowing he didn't want anything to do with that wrath if John got outside.

"I'll be back." Cameron said as she walked out the door and closed it behind her.

"Where is she going?" John said and stood up and was about to follow her.

"Sit down and relax John." Ellison said. "Cameron said she was just moving the car to the garage so no one would question the car with a broken side mirror since there are cops and FBI near here."

John sat there in disbelief on the couch but didn't feel like challenging Ellison's word.

Cameron walked across the street and found the two cops hiding behind the police car talking on the radio.

"Yes Sir, we will hold them down until backup arrives in 4 minutes." said one of the officers.

Cameron walked behind the cops quietly and scanned the inside of the building. She saw the hostages and two of the robbers inside. Completing her scan she found Sarah Connor and the weapons that the robbers where using were zero threat to her. Cameron slammed one of the cops hard against the door head first, knocking him out cold. The other cop was able to turn half way around only to be greeted with a pistol whip to the back of the head. "Targets neutralized" her HUD flashed.

Cameron started walking up to the front door only yelled at by the robbers. One of the robbers yelled at her to get down on the ground but she ignored them completely. She kicked opened the locked front door and the robbers looked stunned.

"Get Out." Cameron said. "Now."

One of the robbers drew his gun and shot Cameron in the chest. Cameron drew her gun from her belt and shot both the robbers in the head killing them instantly. The third robber hit Cameron with a baseball bat to the head. Cameron's face was forcefully turned sideways, but otherwise did absolutely nothing damaging to her. In fact, the robber only saw it made her angry. She grabbed the robber and threw him across the room smashing into one of the corner sales stands in the food market. She raised her weapon and fired upon him, killing him also. After the shots were fired Cameron could tell that the hostages were all scared for their lives, all but Sarah. It seemed to Cameron like Sarah was quite used to this.

Cameron then walked up to Sarah and ripped off her wrist and legs constraints, and Sarah took off her own blindfold and duct tape on the mouth.

Sarah and Cameron walked out of the front door of the store and Sarah asked Cameron. "Are we just leaving them here?"

"They'll live" Cameron said. "Besides the FBI van is approaching this area in 15 seconds. We need to get back to the house."

"What took you so long? Wait, you look like hell Cameron." Sarah said. "What happened at the mall, where is John? He better be okay." Sarah said slightly pissed at Cameron.

"Traffic issues." Cameron said as her and Sarah crossed the street. Just then Cameron saw the FBI van arrive at the scene." Other than running into a triple eight that wanted to kill us all, the mall was fine. We got new clothes, but they are ruined already." She continued.

"What triple eight?" Sarah said concerned.


	10. So Much to Learn, So Little Time

**Chapter 10 – So Much to Learn, So Little Time**

Cameron approached the house that they were staying at and opened the door. She walked in and noticed Sarah storming in right behind her. Sarah went straight for John while Cameron turned around and looked out the door. She scanned that nothing was coming towards their house and there were no threats. The FBI and police seemed to be clueless on what just happened at the food market.

"John, are you okay?" Sarah asked looking over John, who seemed to be lying on the couch watching some TV.

"Yeah mom, I'm fine." John said casually. He didn't feel like getting his mother's speech again.

"Like hell you are John, you are bleeding." Sarah said. "Cameron, get a first aid kit." She continued.

Ellison overheard Sarah request and spoke. "I'll get one out of my car."

"You again, huh?" Sarah said looking at Ellison.

"Yeah, me again." Ellison said. He walked out to the garage and grabbed the first aid kit out of his glove box. He walked back inside and handed it to Sarah. He walked over to Savannah and asked her if she wanted to go watch TV and play in the other room. She agreed and off they went to give the others some privacy.

Sarah opened the first aid kit and started to work on John's leg which was caked in blood. She cut away the new pair of jeans at the knee to get a clean look of the wound. It didn't look like it was too bad, just a pretty good cut.

"Bullet or knife?" Sarah asked John.

John smirked and said, "Not really sure mom, probably a bullet.

Cameron watching over both of them interrupted them and said. "Based on the flesh wound and damage track, it was a bullet from a handgun, probably a"

"Cameron, shut up." Sarah said. It was a pointless question to distract me from seeing my son bleed all over the place."

"Oh, thank you for explaining." Cameron said, looking a little hurt.

"She's just trying to help mom, relax. Besides it seems like we all have a magnet for trouble recently. In fact, I don't think the Connors should go shopping for awhile. I try to buy clothes and run into trouble. Then you try to go food shopping and the store gets robbed. Then again you cooking may end up in a giant signal flare of smoke to attract terminators to the house." John said starting to laugh to get his mom to ease up a bit.

Hearing Cameron laugh at John's comments, Sarah threw some rubbing alcohol on John's leg.

"Ouch! Mom, seriously!" John said grabbing his leg in pain.

Sarah started to wrap up his leg with some bandages, but Cameron interrupted her again.

"You need to verify there are no fragments and apply enough pressure from the bandage wrappings to effectively not let the wound get infected or scar." Cameron said.

"You know what, you do it." Sarah said, shoving the supplies at Cameron.

Cameron walked over to John and starting to clean the leg a little bitter than what Sarah did. She applied the bandages to his leg and John kicked his leg out and in.

"Feels good." John said. "Don't mind my mom, I think she's just pissed that it's all happening again." She continued.

Cameron looked at John with a sad looking face and frown and said. "I don't think she is too happy I am back either."

John and Cameron noticed the shower running. John said to Cameron, "Don't sweat it. I don't think it's you she is pissed at. Besides, I am glad your back." he said has he put his hand on Cameron's shoulder.

Cameron smiled. "Thanks." She said. "Can you help me with one thing?" she continued.

"Yeah, sure." John said.

"I am able to self repair, but I can't reach the three bullets lodged in my back. Do you mind getting them out?" Cameron asked.

"Sure, just tell me what to do." John said.

Cameron got up and grabbed a set of needle nose pliers and sat down on the sofa with John. She lifted up her shirt half way and tied it so it looked like a bikini top. There John saw the three bullet holes that she collected during the gun fight.

"Just use the pliers to grab the bullets and pull them out." Cameron said.

John carefully used the pliers and dug out the first bullet and dropped it on the floor.

"You don't have to be so careful John, I can sense the injury, but I don't feel pain like humans do." Cameron said.

John continued to be gentle anyways and dug out the last of the bullets. He grabbed the medical tape and bandages and closed the wounds.

"Maybe I want to be careful, Cameron. Besides to me it looks pretty painful." John said. He had both his hands on Cameron's back making sure the shabby taping job he just did would hold.

Cameron leaned back on the sofa and pulled her shirt back down to normal. John threw his arm around her and looked at her.

"Besides, I have to watch out for you. If something happens to you, who is going to take endless amounts of bullets and save my life daily?" John said.

Cameron was speechless. She had no idea what to say, but was blushing. All she could do is smile and try to control her eyes so they wouldn't turn anymore blue then they already were.

John turned around on the sofa and saw his mother standing in the other room pretty much just staring at them.

"Great my mom is watching us." John said in a low voice so his mom couldn't hear him.

Cameron looked over and whispered at John. "Should I make her uncomfortable?"

John blushed and had no idea what to say.

Just then the door opened and Cameron sprung up reaching for her pistol. It was just Weaver and John Henry. Weaver noticed Cameron pointing a gun at her and saw that both her and John looked a little tired and bloodied.

"Oh, then I take it you two are the reason for the big crime scene across the block." Weaver asked looking at Cameron.

"No, that was me." Sarah spoke up.

"Yeah, Cameron and I only fought a triple-eight at the mall and had a fun car chase. But we did find and pick up Ellison and your daughter." John said sarcastically at Weaver.

"Sounds like a typical Connor family day I suppose." Weaver said.

"Mommy!!!" Savannah said running around the corner of the other room. She jumped up at her mom and the liquid metal caught her and did the best it could to pretend like a mother.

"Hi John Henry!" the little girl continued ever so excited to see him back.

"Hello Savannah. How are you?" John Henry spoke.

John Henry looked at Savannah and asked. "Would you and Agent Ellison like to play a game with me? I would love to hear all about what you have done since I have seen you last." He said.

"Yeah!" the little girl said. With that John Henry took Savannah and off they went to play some games.

"Cameron, since it seems like Skynet is here, why don't we go out patrol for a while. The Connors can get some sleep." Weaver said.

Cameron looked at John and John nodded his head like that was a good idea. Cameron then nodded her head at Weaver. They walked out the door and left John and Sarah alone.

Sarah sat down with John on the sofa and they starting talking for a while. It wasn't anything too important, just things they need to do and explaining how crazy it was that there first day in Florida was a gun fight.

"John, just be careful around her. I don't trust her 100% yet." Sarah said about Cameron.

"Mom, you have to get over that. She isn't the same one that was damaged. She is 100% now. Like it or not, she is important to me. She saved me today and does so in the future." John defended Cameron

"Yes, I know she is different now, but I still don't know why you sent her back to you in this time, if she was so important to you in the future. She isn't human, she is a machine. That's all I am saying." Sarah said.

"We have a skeleton made of bone and have a heart; she has an endoskeleton of metal and power supply. Are we so different?" John said.

"You just said it, John. We have a heart, they don't. Just be careful. Now lie down and get some sleep. We can discuss this more tomorrow if you want in the morning" Sarah said.

"Goodnight mom." John said. With that Sarah headed off to the bedroom and went to bed.

Meanwhile outside Cameron and Catherine Weaver were out patrolling, Weaver asked Cameron for a detailed description of what happened today.

"You did well today, Cameron. Protecting three people I am sure was very hard to do. I am shocked you could keep all three a priority." Weaver said.

"John was a good solider today. He deserves some credit." Cameron said.

"Fair enough." Weaver said.

"I think I am malfunctioning again." Cameron said with a long face.

"How so?" Weaver asked.

"Every time I make contact with John, it's like I get a power surge. I noticed it today too when he was shot." Cameron said.

Weaver started talking to Cameron and explained what she knew. "I think you should talk to John Henry about this more. I believe the data you are feeling is a called an emotion. Fear, anger, love, all of these can do that to a human." She continued explaining.

"Love?" Cameron said. "I am just a machine." She continued.

Then everyone is a machine. Based on my studies of humans, love is wanting to protect, cherish, and be there at every turn for that person." Weaver said. "Talk to John Henry." She continued.

They were interrupted when three guys walked up to them and got in their way.

"Hey ladies, come with us. We can have some fun." One man said.

"No thank you. Have a nice night." Cameron said.

"I don't think you understand. It wasn't a question, I am telling you. If you don't want to get hurt, come with us. Now." Another man said looking at Weaver.

"Get lost." Weaver said.

"Bitch, did you hear what I said?" the first man said pulling out a knife pointing it at Weaver.

"That's a nice knife, for a little boy." Weaver said. She shaped her hand into a large knife.

"What the!!!" the three guys said running away.

Cameron reached for her gun, but Weaver stopped her.

"Why don't you go back to the house and make sure everything is okay and watch over John. I can finish up here." Weaver said.

Cameron returned back to the house and opened the door quietly not to disturb anyone that was sleeping. She saw John sitting up on the sofa awake. She assumed everyone else was asleep since there were no other noises.

"Are you okay John?" Cameron asked as she walked up to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just fine." John said in a crackling voice.

Cameron watched John stand up and look out the window. He wouldn't look at her. She laid a hand on his shoulder and sensed a huge amount of stress and his blood pressure was high.

"What is wrong John?" she asked again.

John turned to her and she saw the small amount of tears in his eyes.

"Nightmares." He said. "I haven't sleep for a while. Every time I do, I see the future, I'm always hunted. They don't stop until I am dead."

"I will protect you." Cameron said softly at John. She reached out to John giving him a hug. He responded by hugging her back resting his head on her shoulder.

"It is just, I am scared. I have endless machines wanting to kill me, my mom jumping me for every mistake. I can't even be a normal kid. Sometimes I feel my mom is more machine like then you with all the orders." He said in a crackling voice. "Some future leader I am huh? I complain about my up-tight mom, and cry in front of you. You sure you are protecting the right guy? He said with a laugh.

"I am sure" Cameron said.

Cameron laid down on the sofa and motioned John to lay down with her. John joined her and they laid there on the sofa together. The sofa was large enough for the both of them that they were not too cramped.

"Now if you have nightmares, I'll jump in and kill the terminators in your sleep." Cameron said with a smile.

John laughed and was soon quickly asleep. Cameron laid there wide awake and started to process data she collected fighting the terminator earlier in the day to search for mistakes or other important data she missed before.

Sarah turned the corner watched over both of them on the couch. John was out cold and Cameron looked like she was in stand-by mode. She heard everything since Cameron walked through the door. Half of her was stunned and hurt. The other half knew her son was right. She was acting more like a machine than Cameron was too him.

She walked back to bed and saw John Henry watching television with Savannah passed out on his lap and Ellison on the couch asleep.

"Hello Ms. Connor." John Henry said. "How can I help you?"

"What do you know about Cameron in the future?" Sarah asked.

"Everything, why do you want to know? John Henry asked.

"Call it a mother's instinct." Sarah replied back to the machine.

"Well, in that case, you better get some coffee Ms. Connor." John Henry said.


	11. Some Secrets Are Better Off Just Buried

**Chapter 11 – Some Secrets Are Better Off Just Buried… In a Basement**

Sarah sat down on the chair and looked at John Henry. "Forget the coffee; I'm ready to know why she is here." Sarah said asking John Henry about Cameron.

"I hope you are correct." John Henry said. "What would you like to know?"

"Everything you know." Sarah said.

"Very well." John Henry said.

"As you know Ms. Connor in the future there is a war between the humans and the machines. After years of fighting, Skynet realized it was more of a chess match that they needed to play carefully, in order to win. Skynet knew that they could produce terminators quicker than the humans could ever reproduce, so it was only a matter of time before the machines would win. However, your son John figured out ways to outsmart the machines. He taught the humans how to disable and smash them into scrap metal. Even the juggernaut force one machine can be to a human, he made it so their strength meant nothing. Skynet figured the best course of action to speed up its victory would be to kill your son. They made multiple attempts in the future, but they all failed. So Skynet created time-displacement equipment. The only drawback to this equipment is it takes a massive amount of electrical power to work. It seems like the heavier the object to be sent back in time, the more power it takes. I personally calculated this when I first jumped to the future, then jumped back in time with your son and Ms. Weaver. In fact I calculated…" John Henry explained but was cut off.

"John Henry, I am not interested in power calculations. I want to know how Cameron fits into all of this." Sarah said.

"Right, sorry about that." John Henry said. "Anyways two times Skynet sent terminators back in time as you well know to try and kill you and your son. Apparently, in the future John was smarter than Skynet and realized they were gathering too much equipment to one location. John decided to raid the buildings to hopefully slow down Skynet. Each time in the future, John countered Skynet. On the first raid, he took Kyle Reese, himself, and 20 other soldiers into a Skynet base. Skynet doesn't know how, but somehow John was able to fight through the machines and get to the time displacement equipment. After noticing that Skynet sent a terminator back through time to kill you before he was even born, he sent Kyle back into time to protect you. They didn't know what kind of terminator, but they assumed the worst. During the escape, John blew up the building so Skynet would never be able to do that again. Skynet countered John Connor by sending their newest type of terminator after John. It was a T-800 model. These models looked just like humans as again, you know about. Anyway, unaware to Skynet, a canine could detect the new terminator series. Looking so real to humans, a patrol brought the T-800 right to John's base camp at the time. After the dogs went berserk, John and the base camp somehow disabled the terminator. The T-800 never made it back to Skynet so the mission was declared a failure. About a week later John saw another massive movement of equipment to a second highly protected Skynet base. This time, John Connor took Allison Young and forty men with him to raid the base. Skynet was, in less of a term, in severe disbelief that the machine it sent to kill John Connor was working and aiding them in the Resistance's mission. Knowing that the humans were there to destroy the base and most of the defenses were destroyed, Skynet sent its first prototype liquid terminator back through time to kill your son. This was the T-1000 you and your son fought many years ago. Once again, John was able to send help. He sent his newest ally, the T-800 to protect your son. As the resistance was ready to blow up the building, they were ambushed. Five machines dashed through and killed most of Connor's men. As John was fleeing, Allison Young was smashed into a wall and was taken hostage. Skynet knew she was important since John was trying to fight his way back in to save her, but his remaining soldiers dragged him to safety. The building was destroyed and Skynet figured that the humans would have assumed that Allison died in the explosion. "

"Skynet then developed a new type of terminator. Learning from its previous mistakes, Skynet built this terminator to be lighter and faster. Its role was not to be really a combat chassis, but an infiltrator. It also gave this new terminator its newest type of CPU. It was much more advanced than anything it used before. Skynet calculated that this new type of processor would be able to process and also be able to show human emotion. Understanding emotion was something that it could process. However trying to understand how and when to display this emotion required a massive amount of data. It was no longer a yes or no decision to a machine. After they built this model, Skynet code named the model the TOK-715. It needed to give it the advanced features of the T-800 such as human skin and real appearance so that it would be able to pass as human. Skynet, knowing that John Connor cared about Allison Young so much, copied her profile to this terminator. The results were a huge success. For days, the machine integrated the human prisoner, Allison, and learned her voice structure and emotional profile. After a week Skynet gave the TOK-715 a field assignment. It was able to fool eleven soldiers on the resistance and killed them. On those missions the TOK-715 was able to learn human emotions such as humor, sadness, and stress emotion mind sets. After gathering the field data, the TOK-715 interrogated Allison more. Allison wanting to live answered the machine's questions. However, the TOK-715 was able to detect a mismatch in data involving a yellow band around the wrist. Finding out that the band was a sign for the human, the TOK-715 was angry and picked up Allison by the neck and killed her for the lie. It calculated that if she was going to start lying, then she had no other use.

After the death of Allison, the TOK-715 calculated that it was not ready to seek out John Connor just yet. Skynet captured a small patrol unit and held them hostage for the TOK-715 to study more emotions and to figure out the location of John Connor's main base of operations and terminate him. The first four soldiers were typical; they all cracked after being drugged then watching the TOK-715's playing the piano like it was a passion. The TOK wanted to play the music to mentally brake down the solders. Knowing a machine could learn and play such beautiful music, was calculated that it would lower their spirits and they would reveal more information. After the drugs kicked in, they told everything they knew to the TOK-715. Since they were just common soldiers, they didn't know any valuable information such as where Connor was hiding. However there was one man that was mentally tough as steel. His name was Derek Reese. Even after being drugged, Derek didn't reveal anything to the TOK-715. The TOK deemed that Derek was immune to the drug set they gave him so it decided to break him down mentally."

I have Cameron's memory file on the conversation of the basement interrogation if you would like to hear it." John Henry said.

"Tell me everything." Sarah said

"Okay, I am starting it now." John Henry said.

"Hi Derek Reese, I am Allison Young." The TOK-715 spoke to Derek.

"Like hell you are, metal bitch." Derek growled at the machine.

"Look, Reese, killing you is not my mission. I only want to kill John Connor. Tell me where he is, and I will let you go." The machine said.

"I bet you will." Derek said.

"I already know where one of your bases is. The code word to get in is 'coyote'." The TOK-715 said.

Derek with a fearful face suddenly got a little pale.

"See human, you understand now. I will get the information I want and I will succeed in my mission. "

"The dogs will rat you out. They always do." Derek said smugly.

"Oh, dogs like these?" the TOK said as she bent down and made a whistle sound. Just then two German Sheppard dogs came towards the machine like it was their best friend. They licked her face and she petted them. Suddenly when a T-600 walked in the door, the dogs went berserk and barked fiercely at the T-600. Once the T-600 left, the dogs went back down to normal.

Derek started to show his fear and the TOK picked up on it.

"I promise to cry after I kill John Connor." The TOK said. "See, watch." It continued.

Derek looked at the machine and tears started to form around its eyes and fall down the human like cheeks of her face. It was crying. It looked like it was sad and mourning. Derek formed a tear of his own knowing the massive danger that John Connor and the human race was facing.

"The only problem is I don't know if it will be tears of sadness or joy that my mission is over." the TOK bragged at Derek.

"So if I help you and give you information, you will really let me go?" Derek said like he was defeated.

"That's the idea." The TOK said.

"I will believe that when pigs fly." Derek said to the machine almost testing it.

"Based on anatomy, pigs or swine will never be able to fly. Your thinking is illogical." The machine explained to Derek.

"So where is the real Allison?" Derek questioned the machine. "You answer some of my questions, I'll answer yours." He continued.

"She has been terminated. Her being alive and possible escape would compromise my mission to kill John Connor." The machine explained.

"I don't think my life is more valuable then John Connor's life. Kill me and get it over with." Derek said sadly.

"What about your brother's life, Kyle?" The machine said. "I will let him live too, or else I will kill him." The machine coldly continued.

"So I tell you, and everyone else lives in the base. You just take one man's life and leave?" Derek asked.

"Yes, after that mission I have no purpose, so I can be destroyed. We will have won." The TOK smirked at Derek.

"Fine. The main bunker where John Connor stays is by the nuclear plant on the east side of the old town." Derek said in defeat.

"What are the codes and signals to get in?" the machine asked walking close to Derek. "I already know of the yellow band. I already have one." It continued.

"Damn." Derek said. "The way to get in is to tap the door 2 times, wait for 3 seconds then tap it 3 times. The codeword is coyote. "He continued. "John and the main officers are inside a different room that you will have to get into."

"Yes, I know, Allison already told me that she was cleared to enter. What is the process to get in?" the TOK said to Derek.

"Four hits on the door." Derek said. "Oh and the bell." He continued.

"What bell?" the machine asked as its eyes gleamed knowing the victory was almost at hand.

"There is one to the side of the door. There is a wire dangling down, it's a copper wire tied to the bell. Pull it twice." Derek said.

"Why ring a bell?" the machine questioned.

"It reminded John of the sound of freedom and peace." Derek said with a tear in his eye. "The sound of it is quite shocking to hear." Derek said with a half weak smile.

The TOK looked slightly puzzled but didn't seem to phase it. "Thank you for your cooperation. You will be freed later." The machine said.

"One last thing," Derek said weakly as the machine was walking away. "After Connor destroys you, do you mind if I turn you into an ashtray?" Derek said he was laughing a little.

The TOK-715 turned around, walked up to him, and hit him in the back of the head with its gun. Derek blacked out. The TOK then headed off on its mission to terminate John Connor.


	12. A Machine on a Mission

**Chapter 12 – A Machine on a Mission**

Catherine Weaver walked around the city blocks near the house that the Connors and John Henry were staying at. Besides from the men that seemed to want to take advantage of the two machines, it was a quiet night. Weaver walked by the food market and most of the police were already gone. One officer that was left at the scene was taping some evidence tape around the door to seal off the scene. The only possible threats to the household were a gas station down the block and a house that seemed to be condemned. The gas station would have to have one giant explosion to cause any harm to the house everyone was staying at. Weaver was content on her patrol so she decided to head back to the house.

Weaver unlocked and opened the door and found that the house was quiet except some voices in the other room. She walked by and noticed John and Cameron sleeping on the sofa together. John had his arm over Cameron's waist and his head on her shoulder. Weaver stopped to stare for only a second and continued to the other room. There she saw John Henry talking to Sarah Connor. John Henry stopped talking and looked at Weaver.

"Hello Ms. Weaver, I assume everything checked out okay outside." John Henry said.

"Yes it did John Henry. What are you two talking about?" Weaver asked.

"I am telling Sarah detailed records of the history of Cameron." John Henry said.

"I see. I hope you are ready Ms. Connor. Continue on John Henry." Weaver said as she looked a little unhappy with Sarah.

"Continue on with what happened next, John Henry." Sarah said brushing off any warnings Weaver was trying to give her.

"Very well, Sarah." John Henry said.

The TOK walked up the stairs and noticed the other four humans were unconscious on the ground, still shackled to the floor. Two of the T-600's randomly patrolled the area in the house to assure none of them would escape.

"Weak and pathetic," the machine thought as she walked out the front door of the half destroyed house and into what remained of the city. The machine walked through the rubble of buildings and continued on the path that Derek told her about. After about two hours of walking, the machine spotted the entrance Derek was talking about. It started to scan the area for threats, but everything seemed quiet. The machine did a quick analysis of itself. The clothes were from Allison, so that was a direct match. However, it noticed that if Allison really did escape from Skynet. It would be highly doubtful she would have no scratches or cuts on her body. The TOK drew a knife that it took from Derek and started to cut its face, arm, and leg to make it appear like it was a valid escape from Skynet. It then took its fingernails and made some deep scratches on its face and neck. It now appeared like she really was Allison and she was able to escape. It waited and stalked the base for about an hour to let the fake blood stain the clothes and finish scabbing. Out of nowhere the door opened and it looked like four men based on body structure were leaving the bunker and headed its way. It quickly tried to scan the humans to see if the targets were of any importance. The scan came back as incomplete. The humans looked to be wearing a dark cloth over their faces and temple to protect them from dust and provide better cover so the machines couldn't spot them as easily. All the scan could come back with was images of the eyes. Something that Skynet wasn't able to use for a solid ID match yet. The machine calculated that the current path of the humans would reveal her position. Knowing it was the best time to move for the best shot at realism, it started running to the patrol and flailed its arms in the air to make it appear she was running hard and scared.

"Help!" the machine said, running to the human patrol. Now that the machine was within feet of the men, she confirmed there were only four of them. One of the patrol soldiers was wearing black cloth, while the other three wore gray cloth. It assumed the black cloth solider was the leader of the group. The TOK figured they were out to scout out Skynet camps judging them by the amount of gear, food rations, and ammo supply the team had on them. Based on their weapons, none of them were a threat to it.

"Allison? Allison!!" a human guard in a gray cloth head cover stated in excitement. "Hurry let's get you inside. Connor has been worried sick about you. Hell, you are the best news we had for quite a while. Finally, a change in luck happened for us today." The guard stated.

The patrol aborted their mission and headed back to camp. The guards approached the door and knocked on it two times, waited for three seconds, then knocked on it again three times again.

"Coyote." The leader of the guards said.

"Right." A voice from behind the wall confirmed. The door was unlocked and slowly opened up. Inside there were about ten men and three dogs. The machine walked with the patrol and saw the dogs. They were still. She bent down and started to pet one of the dogs. The German Shepherd sat there and wagged its tale. The dog jumped up on its hind legs at the machine, and the machine embraced the dog knowing Allison did the same as she was told during the interrogation.

"Let's get you some new clothes and get you patched up." The leader of the patrol said.

"Thank you." The machine said, sounding just like Allison.

The leader summoned one of his men to come over to help the machine out.

"This way," The man said. "This isn't much, but it will be better than the rags you are in now Allison. Oh here is a supply kit for you to wash your cuts and scrapes up. Don't want it to get infected." He continued.

"Thank you." The machine said again.

"You can change and clean up in this room over here." The man then pointed to an empty room. The TOK-715 walked in and changed the clothes the human gave it. They were a little too big, but they worked. The machine cleaned up a bit and wiped off the dirt and blood from its face, then the cuts on her leg it ignored. The machine was smiling at itself. The plan was working perfectly. Everyone believed it was Allison and no one knew it was a machine underneath.

The machine walked out of the room and was greeted by more of the men in the bunker.

"So, come on Allison! Spill it, how did you escape?" one of the solders asked.

The machine noticed everyone was paying attention to it, even the leader of the patrol. The leader kept his distance however. He stood by the entrance of the bunker about ten feet away. He didn't make eye contact that much, as he seemed busy cleaning his gun. It looked like the patrol men were about to go out again since they didn't change, but they wanted to all hear the story. Knowing that Allison had to tell the tale of how she escaped, the machine made up a story that would have made the most logical way of surviving. It explained how she was taken out of the building before it exploded, but the blast knocked the terminators down and she was thrown away from them. Since she lost her gun, she couldn't fight them and had to run away from the terminators. She wanted to throw them off so she ran the wrong way from the bunker. For days she went into hiding so that the hunting terminators would not find her. Finally after it appeared that the terminators gave up the search for her, she made a break for it and finally just now got back to base.

The machine watched as every solder listened and it looked like all of them bought it. One of the solders did speak up however.

"No place like home, right Allison?" he said.

"Yeah, no place like home!" the machine said with a big smile.

"Are you hungry Allison? We got some homemade meat broth leftover." One of the solders asked.

"Sure." The machine said. It logically figured that the human version would be hungry after not eating for a week. Its choice seemed to be obvious.

The leader stopped cleaning his gun and went to another room. He came back with two cups of what seemed to be meat broth. He handed one to the machine and he kept one for himself and headed back to where is gun was. The machine analyzed the cup's contents. It was made of water, salt, pieces of rat meat, and a little bit of crushed dry corn. It studied the leader and watched him take a sip of the broth, so it deemed that the cup's contents were safe for consumption. The temperature of the cup contents was about 100 degrees. The group visited a bit more and the machine passed with flying colors. As time went on, more and more the solders seemed to believe she was the real deal. It was like a miracle. The machine finished consuming the contents of the cup and sat the cup on the floor.

"Well I better go let John know I am back safe and sound. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees me." The machine stated to the men.

"Hey Allison, one more thing." A random solder said. "Tell the man to go get some shut eye. I don't think that man as slept since you went missing!" he continued.

"I'll help him get some shut eye." The machine said sweetly and started to walk away.

The TOK then started walking to the second door and was followed by the patrol leader, but figured that he would have to report his mission was sidelined to John before heading back out in the city. He wasn't done with his cup as it still had some contents left, and the temperature seemed to still be around 80 degrees.

On the way to the door a rat popped out of the wall and ran across the room. The machine saw it, but chose to ignore it. During the interrogation Allison never made mention that she liked or hated rats, so the best scenario would be to ignore the rat all together. Besides there was no point of blowing the perfect cover it had going for it after all this work.

The machine refocused and started walking like a machine on a mission. Finally, the TOK was about three feet from the door. It started to scan the door quickly, since someone was behind her. The door was solid metal and it had a metal handle to allow the humans to pull the door open to get in and out. Scanning to its upper right it saw a crack in the ceiling and there was a pea-sized diameter copper wire dangling down. It was resting against the wall and would require a human to have about a seven foot reach range. This would be no issue for the machine to reach the wire. The wire was however, slightly hidden. The machine didn't know where the other end of the wire went but it remember what Derek had told it. Humans, it thought. They like everything to be hidden.

The machine was ready. It approached the door. Its mission of finding John Connor is at hand. Only one door stood in its way to total victory.


	13. Free Will

**Chapter 13: Free Will.**

The machine approached the door. It replayed the code sequence video that Derek talked about on its HUD. Four hits on the door then ring the bell two times. The machine made a fist and hit the door four times. It rescanned the wire dangling against the wall. The wire blended in with the wall quite well but it was not completely hidden. It thought to itself without Derek's information, the probably that it would have considered the wire a part of the sequence to the human's password would have been five percent. It reached for the wire slowly and grabbed it.

POW!!! The lights dimmed and the machine was forcefully launched back ten yards straight into the concrete wall. The machine was twitching trying to gather itself. The current that just jolted through its endoskeleton knocked most of its systems offline temporary. Every sub-system from the machine's neck down was offline. The machines HUD flashed the standard reboot sequence to restore main power to system chassis: two minutes. The machine heard the patrol leader somewhat laughing under his combat gear. He slowly pulled down his mask. He then gave a long look at the machine, obviously knowing it was temporarily disabled on the ground. The machine started to scan the human, one of its functions it was still able to do. Target Identification confirmed. John Connor, its HUD flashed.

"Doesn't look like today is your lucky day after all, machine." John said calmly. Others started running down the hallway to see the ruckus that just happened and to make sure John was okay. The men all pointed their guns at the machine still trying to regroup its system power.

John drew his knife and walked closer to the machine. He started to cut its scalp to locate the port cover that was protecting its CPU.

"It doesn't matter. Skynet will send more terminators after you. Every time we get closer to our goal. The death of John Connor will happen. You can't stop it". The TOK said attempting to stall John, but was unable to. It lost and it knew it.

"Well, that day isn't today." John said as he pried open the port cover revealing the CPU. The TOK knew termination was imminent. The machine showed its teeth in anger waiting for its termination. Its HUD flashed warnings that the CPU was unprotected.

"Well, isn't that new? A machine that's pissed off it lost." John said with a smirk of victory on his face.

"Your sense of victory is worthless; I am a machin….." The TOK was in the middle of saying when John pulled the chip from its head.

"Want me to blow it up, sir?" a guard asked John with an abnormal amount of enthusiasm.

"No. I have better plans for this one." He said studying the chip that was in his hand. He looked at the TOK that was now offline and lifeless on the floor.

John walked to the door the terminator was trying to get into; he put the CPU in his pocket and with his free hand hit the door four times. He then took a step away from the door to his right and stood on what looked to be a loose tile on the ground. The guards on the other side unlocked and opened the door and looked around to see what all the commotion was all about. A man walked out of the door looking at John. He was about John's build size, yet he wasn't in any combat gear. He looked like a technician more than anything.

"Damn Connor, you gained a few pounds." The technician said. "Too much home cooking?" he chuckled.

John involuntary raised a middle finger at the technician. The technician and the other men started laughing.

"Mark, I need you reprogram this one with the same type of safeguards you did with the T-800 we captured." John said to the technician. "That order being, don't kill John Connor."

"No serve the human race or protect and serve John Connor?" Mark said slightly laughing at what he said was sort of cheesy.

"No, not this time." John replied to Mark giving him the CPU.

"Yes sir." Mark said. "Wait, this chip is different than the other one." He continued.

"Yes, it is." John said. "Let me know what you figure out about it and let me know." He continued.

John motioned for the guards to move the lifeless TOK-715 into the room, and they obeyed John. They dragged the TOK in the room and dropped it on the ground.

"What should her code name be, sir?" Mark asked.

"Call it Cameron." John said. "That was Allison's middle name. It will serve as her memory." He explained to Mark.

John walked out the door and left Mark to work on the chip. Mark studied the chip for a moment, and started to override some of Skynet's programming.

John walked into the mess hall and joined his men. All of the soldiers seemed honored to sit near John. They listened adamantly to his words and never once they questioned his leadership about keeping a terminator around the base. They all trust him with their lives. Hours later Mark sought out John and explained his findings about the chip.

"So it is more advanced and can mimic human emotion?" John asked.

"Yes, I would guess that this chip is twice if not three times as powerful as the T-800's chip. I overrode Skynet's kill order on you and the human resistance." Mark explained to John.

"Good. Let's go see what we got here. "John said, patting Mark on the back.

John and Mark walked into the room after performing the proper code to be granted access. They both walked up to the new machine named Cameron. It was chained to a metal pole in the ground and was bound so it would not be able to move. They took all precautions just in case the programming didn't work. John took the chip on the table where Mark worked on it; made sure the chip was on active learning and reactivated the terminator by reinserting the chip back into its skull. The guards raised their weapons at the machine just to be careful. After about two minutes of waiting, the machine opened its eyes and started to boot up.

***********

TOK-715: ON-LINE

CODE NAME: CAMERON

SYSTEM INTERGRITY: 100%

MISSION OBJECTIVES: TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR…. OVERRIDDEN

NEW MISSION OBJECTIVES: NONE

***********

The machine was activated and noticed that it was sitting on the floor and all of its limbs were bound and it wasn't able to move.

"What is your mission?" John spoke at the machine.

Cameron looked at John and gave him a glare for a moment. "To not kill you and the human resistance, John." she said.

John signaled the guards to free her and they did as John commanded. John handed her a gun, which was unloaded, and tossed it at her.

"Prove it." John said while the gun was in mid air.

Cameron caught the gun and examined it, then pointed it at the ground. Cameron tossed the gun in the air back at John.

"I have no use for the weapon at this time. You have not given me a mission and there are no current threats in the area." Cameron said to John.

"Good." John said. "We have a lot to talk about, you and I. "he continued.

John signaled for the soldiers to leave the room and all that was left was Cameron, John, and Mark.

"For now, I need to know if my men or I am in immediate danger's way." John looked at the machine and started to query it.

For hours they talked about Skynet and what some of its key missions coming up was all about. John learned of a few major missions that caught his attention. First, Skynet was trying to terminate the other T-1000's, second, they were constructing a major factory that by Cameron's estimates would control 70% of all Skynet's new terminators in the major area, and lastly, Skynet was going on the offensive tomorrow to start raiding the resistance's bases. Most of the locations Skynet knew of were wrong, but they had two major bunkers correct.

"Mark, go give the order for our submarine in that area to go on an intercept course to the location of the rogue T-1000. I want you to have one of the men to ask the liquid metal if it will join us." John said.

"What? Are you insane?" Mark said shocked at John would consider asking a machine built by Skynet to join them without reprogramming it.

"An enemy of our enemy is our friend." John said to Mark. "Also send messengers right away to the two targeted bunkers and have them evacuated immediately."

Mark was in disbelief about the submarine ordeal but left the room to carry out John's orders.

"Are you going to reprogram me to blow up the factory?" Cameron said to John, now alone with him in the room.

"No. I want to know more about you." John responded back to her.

"Like what? I am a TOK-715." Cameron said before he cut her off.

"I want to know what you are capable of, what makes you different from a T-800." John questioned his newest ally.

The machine discussed its capabilities with John and they talked for hours.

"Wow." John said impressed. "I asked a lot about you Cameron, I will return the favor and answer your questions. It is only fair." He continued.

"Why, I just do as I am programmed. " Cameron replied.

"Cameron, if you are as advanced as you say you are, then you would be thirsty for knowledge. I set your chip to active learning. If you noticed, I did not program you with specific missions. I am going to treat you as a human, not a machine. I want you to make your own missions because you want to complete those objectives for yourself, not me. I only asked that you don't kill me or my human allies." John explained to Cameron.

Cameron looked shocked. This was something it did not expect.

"Think of it this way Cameron, if I programmed you to be my slave and do my missions, then how am I different from Skynet and what they originally programmed you to do? Humans have leaders as you know, but our job is to guide them to victory and work together. We put trust in one another. I would gladly die for a handful of my men as they would die for me. "John discussed with Cameron.

Cameron smiled at John. "John, can I ask you some questions? There are some things about humans I still don't understand from my past research." Cameron said.

"Go for it." John replied.

Cameron and John talked about the human's viewpoints of the war, the human's goals, human specialties, and the concept of the word trust.

"I understand now. Thank you for explaining John." Cameron smiled.

"Cameron, now that you know how the resistance works and if you are willing, I would like to make you my lead tactician. You would be in charge of developing combat plans, analysis of mission info, and strategies for various missions. You would then tell me, and I would give the order for them to go complete the mission." John explained to Cameron.

"I accept." Cameron said feeling humbled and honored.

John extended his hand and Cameron looked blankly at him.

"A common symbol of agreement and sometimes trust is started by a handshake." John happily explained to Cameron.

Cameron extended her hand and shook John's hand.

"Welcome to the human resistance Cameron, you are officially promoted to an officer status. I will let the other officers know of this. For the mean time, others will think you are human, and in time I will let them know the truth." John explained.

"I understand John; the average human psyche would be too much in shock after fighting the machines for years to suddenly be overwhelmed that one of them is now an ally." Cameron discussed with John as she accepted her new role.

Just then a solider coded in at the door. John got up and opened the door for him.

"Sir, we just got word from. Machine, get out, I need to talk to John alone. Now." The solider said to John looking at Cameron.

Cameron started to walk towards the door when John stopped her.

"Her name is Cameron, and she stays solider. In fact, she is your new tactician officer. Pay her the same respect as you would me. Now what do you need to tell me." John snapped at the solider for being disrespectful.

"The men from evacuation bunker alpha are all out sir heading our way, but location bravo is surrounded by about three or four T-600s. They can't get out. They are pinned down. "The solider told him, with a tone of fear in his voice.

"Can I borrow this John?" Cameron pointed at John's rifle lying next to the wall.

"Sure, what are you planning on doing with it?" John said looking at Cameron having a slight idea of what she was about to do.

"Trust me." Cameron said with a half smile and winked at John, then grabbed the rifle and walked out the door. She marched to the main entrance and left the bunker.

John stood there smiling ear to ear as he watched Cameron walk out the bunker. The solider looked at John half confused.

"Come with me solider, we got work to do." John said.


	14. Games of the Future

**Chapter 14: Games Of The Future.**

John and the soldier marched down the halls. When they got to the main area where most of the soldiers were he stopped and drew a long breath.

"Men, the machines are after a few of our bases. My goal today is that not a single human dies. Arm your weapons and go outside, we are going to patrol the area outside of our bunker. We will be providing cover and safety for the ones that will be fleeing here." John commanded in only a natural leader's voice could sound like.

The men all gathered their weapons and split up into three teams and headed out. John and one soldier remained. John walked to the weapons rack and grabbed a new rifle and a few custom grenades and walked to the bunker's entrance.

"Sir, where are you going?" the soldier queried John.

"Surely soldier you don't think I would let Cameron get all the credit. I would never hear the end of it if I got beat on terminator kills today." John smiled at the soldier.

"Well, frankly sir, she is a machine." The soldier reminded John.

"Yeah, you're right; I probably shouldn't have given her such a large head start." John smirked at the soldier.

John walked out the door and started off on foot to the beta bunker that was being held hostage. In his estimates it would take him about thirty minutes to get there. As he was walking he saw a patrol team very well hidden ready to cover anyone that was fleeing their way. His men were ready.

Cameron was in pursuit of the beta bunker and her HUD was very active. She was constantly searching for any other machines in the area. As she was walking she started to think about her talks with John. She was ready to gain trust with him and the other humans. She didn't quite know why it was so important to her, but her actions in the bunker spoke loud and clear. After about thirty minutes her scans showed three T-600s stalking the outside of the bunker. She scanned their weapons. Two of the terminators had a machine gun armed on them. This was the most efficient weapon to destroy as much human life as possible when they are in packs. The other carried a standard anti-personal weapon and looked like it had explosives. Cameron calculated that the one machine was about to blow up the door leaving the humans with no protection or chance of survival. Cameron knew it was now or never. If she didn't start an attack course then she would fail to protect the humans.

She crept up behind one of the terminators with a machine gun completely undetected. She raised John's rifle and pointed it right at the skull of the terminator. She squeezed the trigger and out came the merciless bullets directly to the skull of the T-600. A loud noise followed as Cameron unloaded about four to five shots into the terminator's skull. She hit the chip and the machine was disabled. The other two machines refocused their weapons at Cameron and the other disabled terminator assessing what just happened. Cameron dropped John's rifle and grabbed the disabled terminator's machine gun and stood behind the inoperable T-600 for cover. The other two terminators starting shooting at Cameron but was hitting the disabled T-600. Cameron took aim at the other T-600 with the machine gun and fired upon it. Since she was starting to get pushed back and taking a few minor shots herself she aimed for the chest and head. The two enemy machines started to spread out to make it so she couldn't shield herself from both lines of fire.

Cameron caught a break and was able to blast the arm off the terminator with the machine gun. She figured this could buy her a little time. She saw the undamaged terminator starting to throw something in her area. She fled for cover and dove behind a concrete block from a destroyed building. A loud blast from the grenade hit the disabled terminator and turned it into scrap metal.

She looked around for possible weapons since she lost the machine gun and John's rifle in the blast and was pinned down. Both terminators were closing in on her and she predicted the best new course of action would be to flee and perhaps lead them away from the humans. She looked behind her only to see a rifle was being tossed at her.

"Miss me yet?" John yelled on the battlefield with an overly big smile on his face like he was born for this.

He drew his handgun and fired upon the terminator with the explosives. Cameron caught the rifle and followed suit on what John was doing. A spray of bullets showered the terminator that was carrying the explosives. After an array of bullets hit the T-600, the machine was blown sky high after the explosives were hit by a bullet and were set off.

Cameron redirected her rifle to the one armed terminator and fired on it. The machine seemed to have grabbed John's rifle and had him in his sites. Cameron charged at John and rammed him to the ground. Bullets ricochet off of Cameron's back and John was able to toss a grenade at the terminator just before John was tackled to the ground by Cameron. The explosion from the grenade was a direct hit and the terminator was no longer a threat.

"John, are you alright?" Cameron asked as she got off of John and got back on her two feet. She extended her hand to help John up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you alright?" John said as he was pulled to his feet with the help of Cameron.

"No endoskeleton structure damage, if that's what you are asking John." She systematically said.

"I'm good would have worked too." John smiled as Cameron. He patted her on the arm and headed to the bunker entrance.

After John coded in at the door, it was opened.

"Connor and Allison are here to rescue us! I was afraid today was my last day alive! Thanks goodness you two came." A soldier said looking with delight that Connor and Allison saved them.

"Come on, we don't have much time, we are retreating back to a different bunker." Connor explained.

All of the humans were ready within a minute and started to flee the base. They gathered outside and looked upon the carnage of the three destroyed T-600s units.

"You got balls Connor, you know that? Three metals and two people" One of the soldiers said.

"So tell me who killed what." Another soldier said.

"I bet Allison beat John!" a different soldier piped up.

"Whoa, for the record, I destroyed two terminators and Allison killed one." John bragged and playfully hit Cameron on the arm.

"I technically did shoot off the arm of one of your kills John. You had a cleanup kill." Cameron said and winked at John playfully hitting him back on the arm.

The soldiers laughed and started to give John the hell he deserved.

Cameron froze in position and started to draw her weapon. John saw her actions and yelled. "Everyone get down. NOW!"

John looked at his right to see a T-600 approaching them with its gun already pointed at his men.

As John was about to duck for cover when Cameron grabbed his last grenade off of his belt and chucked it at the terminator all in one quick motion.

The grenade flew towards the terminator but John thought she over threw it since it was moving far too fast. Cameron shot the grenade right as it was passing by the terminators face. The explosion blew its head off and it joined the fallen metal that was scattered on the battlefield.

The men were ducking on the ground figuring that their lives were almost over.

Cameron finished her scan and there were no more threats in the area. She then looked at John.

"There now the score is tied at two. " Cameron bragged back at John who was speechless along with his men. "Don't tell me you get credit since you made the grenade that I threw at it" Cameron continued and rolled her eyes at John.

The men started to cheer and John knew he was never going to hear the end of it.

"Allison beat John! "

"John just got owned!"

"John got smoked by a girl!"" These were all phrases John heard on the thirty minute walk back to base.

Once they got back in the bunker, the newly rescued soldiers started telling how John and Allison saved their lives and how Allison made the most awesome terminator kill ever. All of their spirits were high. No one other than John knew that it wasn't Allison, but it was Cameron, a machine that saved their lives.

Mark walked up to John and Cameron. "Glad you two made it back in one piece. We need to talk immediately."

John nodded his head and they walked into a vacant room so they could talk privately.

"We still haven't heard from the sub, but according to the coordinates last received, it will be a few weeks before they can safely get there. According to a few scouting parties, Skynet is building up a small raiding force. Unfortunately, my gut tells me they are going to hit this bunker, despite them having no knowledge about it. I don't know how they know about this John, but I don't have a good feeling about it." Mark explained to John and Cameron.

"How is the new headquarters coming along, Mark? Are the defenses good enough we can all fall back to there?" John asked Mark.

"I would say it is about 70% complete sir. I would recommend going there rather than staying here." Mark proclaimed.

John silently nodded his head. "Okay, go tell the other officers to gather the men to fall back to the new headquarters. Send out two patrol parties to buy us cover and time. They are not to fight the enemy, just distract them. "John commanded.

Mark disappeared to tell the officers of the news. Cameron stopped John and explained to him that it was her fault that Skynet learned of this location. She told him how she got her information from Derek and that the other T-600 probably reported back after she went missing.

John didn't seem upset in the least and asked Cameron. "So Derek is alive?"

"Yes, the drugs should be wearing off and they were free to go. Will he know where to find us?" Cameron asked in a bit of shame like she hurt John by her past betrayals.

John started to laugh a little under his voice. "I can't wait to see his face when he sees you now."

"He said he wanted to use me for an ashtray." Cameron said.

"Yep, that's Derek alright. Good to see he hasn't lost his wit." John humored himself.

Everyone from the base moved out and headed to the new headquarters. It was a lot bigger than the other bunkers the men were used to. John decided to move himself into a more secure room. The only way in was a biometric retinal scan. Only three sets of eyes were ever coded into allowing entry. These sets of eyes belonged to John, Mark, and Cameron. This was by far the most secure room the human resistance has ever created. No more would Skynet be able to march machines in and possibly get to John so easily.

As time passed, Derek and his men returned to the main headquarters with the patrol as an escort. John was right and Derek was not happy to learn that John befriended a machine to be his closest ally. To curtail Derek's anger about the machines becoming allies and wondering what happened to his brother, John sent him back in time to help create a resistance that would be able to protect and serve John as an older teenager in the past. Derek accepted the mission and traveled back in time. Often Mark would report updates about different battle situations and key resources. Mark and the other officers warmed up to Cameron slowly and noticed that John trusted her and her opinions. They never questioned John about the machine. Cameron built a strong foundation of trust with John and even with the other officers. She never hid behind John's back and often would lead up resonance missions with John or other officers. The chess match continued between Skynet and the Human Resistance. Trading victories and defeats was a common occurrence between the two. One day Mark came into John's office.

"Sir, the submarine crew has just returned to dock. Unfortunately, they lost the submarine." Mark relayed the information to John.

Cameron walked out to gather the data for John as he was busy figuring out how he was going to do to destroy Skynet's newest terminator factory that was looking like it was almost completed. It was heavily guarded and multiple missions have already failed trying to destroy it.

"They won't join us." Cameron said to John with a long face.

"Damn." John said with disappointment and with a slight frown on his face. "Looks like we have to go with Plan B." he muffled.

"Plan B is too dangerous John. I can't let you do that." Cameron said to John with all seriousness.

"Uhhhh, what is plan B?" Mark said with a puzzled look on his face. "I don't even know of this so called Plan A." he continued.


	15. Second Chances

**Chapter 15: Second Chances**

Cameron stood there in silence with her eyes piercing John's head.

"Cameron, this choice is not yours to make. My mind is set, and we will do this." John corrected her.

"The probability of survival for you is .05%, John. It is a suicide mission. Just send me, and I will sacrifice myself for this mission, for you." Cameron pleaded with John.

"Mark, plan A was to have the liquid metal join our side. The metal would have joined Cameron to raid the factory. They would sneak into the factory. Once inside they would plant explosives in the building and set them off once they were clear. Now that the liquid metal said no, I will take the liquid metal's place. "John explained to Mark.

"That is insane, sir. What was in it for the liquid metal? What is the benefit of you going over me or just Cameron?" Mark asked baffled by John's thoughts.

"I sent the metal a message a while ago asking in return for its help, we would unite and defeat Skynet. I also promised that we would help in whatever way it saw fit. I don't know what that would be, but we have to have some value to it, cause it doesn't want to kill us." John explained. "The reason why I am going is because I have the most field experience of anyone here, I was a prisoner once, and I know how they will lay the building out. Machines are predictable. Cameron can't go alone, she can't do it all. She needs someone to cover her and vice versa." John continued.

"But sir," Mark started to say.

"Mark, go prep four packs of explosives with a five minute fuse. I will need them ready by nightfall. Go now soldier." John commanded.

Mark left the area to do what John told him to do.

"Cameron, I know you don't like this, but like I told you before, I would give my life for the lives of hundreds of my men. When we take this factory down, Skynet will be slow to recover for at least a year. The Human Resistance will have time to put an offensive attack on them. "John described his vision for his mission to Cameron. "Besides, I got you, which should easily give me a 10% survival chance." John laughed.

John and Cameron sat and discussed some strategies for the night's mission. Everything was well thought out and overly planned. As the sun started to set, John got up and started getting ready. Cameron, always being ready helped John load his weapons and equip extra clips and grenades.

"John, just promise me that if it gets too bad, you will turn around and let me finish the mission and not you." Cameron said with a sad face.

John walked over to Cameron and gave her a hug.

"It's going to be fine. For a killer robot, you sure are worried about me." John said jokingly.

Mark came back into the room and handed John the four explosives.

"I made the fuse for five minutes sir." Mark said.

"Quit calling me sir." John proclaimed to Mark. "Also Mark, if something does happen. You are in charge. I have already written a letter stating that to the officers." He continued.

John walked out to see all of his men geared up and ready to go.

"Sir, we are going to buy you some time, and we aren't taking no for an answer." One of John's officers said. "We have fifty men that will go to the opposite side of the factory; we will raise a little hell and then leave. That should flush out most of the machines to our position and give you ten minutes to give them hell. "The officer explained. "Men move out!"

With that order John's men all left the bunker. John stood there in a bit of shock, but felt honored.

"Are all humans as stubborn as you John?" Cameron asked with a smile on her face.

"John Connor, stubborn? Impossible!" Mark chuckled at his own joke.

John and Cameron walked out of the bunker and started off on foot to the new Skynet factory. It would take them about two hours to reach it on foot and not be discovered. About ten minutes on the path Cameron spotted movement and whispered for John to get down. She started to scan the area for possible threats. Her scan came back as no threats in the area.

"False Alarm, everything is" Cameron started to say.

"Get Down!" John screamed as Cameron took a plasma blast directly to her back.

Cameron's system powered down due to overheating from the blast and overall shock to her system.

Approximately two minutes later Cameron's power was restored to her CPU and she scanned herself for damage. Her HUD came back with a report that there was no structural damage, but significant skin damage. She looked over her shoulder and saw that her back was a little charred from the blast and her endoskeleton was exposed from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. She saw John walking up behind her.

"John, are you okay?" Cameron fearfully asked thinking he could have been killed. She was offline for two minutes and that amount of time felt like an eternity for her.

"I'm fine." John replied with little emotion.

"Does this mean it is one to zero already?" Cameron grinned with relief knowing John was okay.

John looked at Cameron with a blank look. "Sure." He said. "Let's move out." He continued and led the way.

The rest of the way to the factory was quiet and Cameron led the way constantly searching for threats. She already made one mistake this night and wasn't about to make another. They arrived at the factory and there were 2 groups of three T-600 machines patrolling the outside of the building, along with two T-600 guards at the door. After about a few minutes, Cameron heard gun shots on the other side of the building. The patrolling machines heard this noise and started to march over there to see what the disturbance was all about. Hell was being raised and this was the prime opportunity.

Cameron took a grenade and lobbed it at the two guards securing the door to the building. She was almost impatient and seemed like she wanted to prove something to John. The grenade exploded and did a massive amount of damage to the two guards. Cameron shot and disabled one of the T-600s and John shot up the other one.

Cameron broke down the door to the new factory and was taken off guard by a mobile machine gun turret patrolling the hallways. She took about fifteen bullets to the chest before she was able to destroy the turret.

"Let's keep moving. They are on to us." John said to Cameron as she was reloading her gun.

They made their way through the factory encountering light resistance. It was nothing Cameron couldn't handle.

"Look, the control room." Cameron proclaimed meaning that their goal was near.

John forced open the door with more force than Cameron has ever seen him display. Cameron walked in first only to see a T-600 inside. She fired upon the machine but the T-600 was ready for her. The machine grabbed Cameron and threw her against the wall knocking her gun away from her. She quickly got up and returned the favor to the other machine. She saw John light the fuses to the explosives and throw them about the room. He grabbed his gun and destroyed the machine that was trying to terminate Cameron.

"Let's get out of here." John said.

John walked out of the room first and was greeted by another mobile machine gun turret. Cameron dove after John to protect him from the stray bullets. John took his gun and blew up the turret after Cameron collected another dozen bullets to the side and back. She looked down and saw a hole in John's boot on his foot.

"John you are hit. Are you okay?" Cameron asked worried about John.

"I'll be fine. I don't have time to bleed." John said and turned around and showed a slight limp as he was walking down the corridor.

When they turned the corner, hell itself awaited them. Three T-600s awaited them. Cameron stepped in front of John trying to buy him time only to be tossed like a rag-doll around the corner.

John looked at Cameron lying on the floor. "Save yourself!" John yelled as he reached for a custom grenade. He drew his handgun and shot it making it explode immediately before the machines could stop him. The force of the grenade knocked Cameron back again as she just got back on her feet. The walls and ceiling fell down upon John and the three T-600s. Buried in concrete and steel, Cameron finally let it process what just happened. Her HUD scanned the rubble and came back with a 0% probability that John would have survived that explosion. John Connor sacrificed his life to destroy the three machines to protect hers.

Cameron's HUD was flashing. Her mission was a failure. She failed to protect John Connor. She walked slowly down the hall defeated until something finally caught her eye. She stared at what looked to be a T-800 walk into a room, configure a computer, got down on one knee. The T-800 looked right at Cameron, seemed to make a grin of sorts, and then vanished with a bright light. Cameron ran the information through her database and figured that it was time displacement equipment. Suddenly like an electrical reflex changed her HUD display from mission failure to new mission priority, travel back through time and protect John Connor. Cameron jogged with a purpose knowing that there was only about two more minutes left before the building would be completely destroyed by John's explosives. She looked at the computer and the other machine traveled back to 1999. Cameron started the time travel jump sequence to the same timeframe and mimicked what the other machine did. She slowly got down to one knee, looked up only to see multiple T-600's closing in on her. Just as the machines got through the door, Cameron was transported to the year 1999. She waited for thirty days for her flesh to heal to be passable as human. After that she started to track down John Connor when he was just a young man.

Sarah sat on the chair completely devastated. Tears were coming down her eyes now knowing why Cameron left her son in the future. He died.

"The rest of the records you already know Ms. Connor, as you have witnessed them yourself." John Henry told Sarah in an emotionless voice.

Sarah slowly picked up her head and saw someone else standing and listening to the story. It was Cameron. Sarah gave her a good long look and noticed that even the machine she despised so much even had a tear in her eye.

"I'm sorry. I failed John in the future. I promised myself I would never let anything happen to him, and I failed." Cameron said softly and hurt now that Sarah knew the truth. She was more concerned that now she would never have Sarah trust or friendship like she had John's from the future.

Sarah straightened herself out, wiping away the tears and getting back to her mentally tough self. She slowly rose to her feet and walked over to Cameron. "You failed him once, don't fail him again." Sarah angrily told Cameron.

Weaver in return looked at Sarah and spoke. "She didn't fail, Ms. Connor. You shouldn't be so quick to judge. I am pretty sure you made more than one mistake in your time with John. "

"Right, she didn't fail." Sarah sarcastically replied to Weaver. "She only let my John die in the future, where it doesn't matter, right?"

"No." Weaver voiced in a Scottish monotone manner. Sarah turned around and yet again saw that diabolical grin on Weaver's face.


	16. Weaver's Explanation

**Chapter 16: Weaver's Explanation**

Sarah turned her attention from scolding Cameron to confronting Weaver. She walked up to her with a tight fist.

"You want to tell me what you know or are you going to hide behind that metal smirk of yours?" Sarah barked at Weaver.

"Like I said before Ms. Connor, in order to win this war, your John Connor needs Cameron and John Henry in this time. Cameron reacted exactly the way I expected her too." Weaver said still sporting her diabolical grin she used before. " In fact John of the future was quite alright. He just had a headache for a while." Weaver knowing the Savannah and Ellison were still asleep morphed into the same future John Connor Cameron knew all too well.

"I don't have time to bleed." Weaver said in the same voice future John Connor said it in.

Cameron cocked her head a little to the side. "So since it wasn't John that died in the explosion and it was you. So was it you that jumped in time right before me?"

"Yes, Cameron, that was me. Like I said before, you reacted exactly the way I expected you too." Weaver said as she morphed back into normal shape. "After I was asked to side with the resistance I was curious. On the submarine I was threatened and the humans tried to destroy me. They failed and I followed them right back to your base. I didn't get to go in your base, but I was impressed that this leader of human kind named John Connor even risked his own life on missions. He was different than the rest. I learned of your mission to blow up the factory. He was foolish enough to sacrifice himself for others. I realized that even you would go to all lengths to protect him. It was then I made up my mind to join you. When you two set out for the factory, I shot you in the back to give me a few minutes to send John back to base. He was quite aware of what my capabilities are, which was interesting to me. I knocked him out using his own pistol. I ended up moving him behind a rock and called for backup saying that you two hit a patrol group. You came back online and the rest you know from there." Weaver explained her story.

"Why not just formally join the resistance, why did you go through all the trouble?" Cameron asked still a bit confused.

"The humans of the future were already biased against machine allies. Most of them thought you were Allison, not a machine. I calculated that humans would be more willing to have machine allies before the war, rather than after. I also calculated that the Resistance would only be alive for another couple years. The number of machines versus humans would simply overrun them. John Connor lived to fight another day, but his death is inevitable Ms. Connor." Weaver continued.

"Based on Skynet's planning and production rate Ms. Weaver, I came to the conclusion that the humans would be all dead in 3 years, not 2." John Henry chimed in.

"Thank you John Henry." Weaver said. "Now Ms. Connor, go ahead and wipe that pissed off look from your face. I'm pretty sure you punching me won't do either of us any good."

Sarah backed down, still upset, but tried to collect her calm.

"Cameron, go get our so called hero up. We have a lot to get done today." Weaver commanded.

"Like what?" Sarah questioned.

"Mr. Ellison is going to go get us new IDs. John Henry, myself, and Savannah are going to go looking for office building we can lease. My company cannot be run from a house. That leaves you, John, and Cameron to go get us cell phones, food, and possibly vehicle shopping. If you split up or go as a group, I really don't care." Weaver said looking at Sarah. "Just don't start fights with other terminators or get held hostage and draw attention to yourself this time. Weaver grinned at Cameron and Sarah.

Cameron walked out of the room and sat next to John still fast asleep on the sofa. She analyzed him and sat and observed him. She lightly crushed his neck with her fingers and analyzed that his vitals and pulse were normal. He didn't have any infections from the cuts on his body. She reached out to shake John's arm when suddenly he opened his eyes. He jumped a little seeing Cameron watching him.

"Didn't I tell you not to do that? It freaks me out." John said startled.

"Sorry, I was already up and was about to wake you." Cameron said looking to the ground.

John walked up to her and looked at her.

"What?" Cameron asked.

"From now on, no more staring me down like a hawk. Try any one of these ideas. "John started to say.

"Give me a big hug and say good morning John, you are the best. Time to wake up. Or John, Good Morning, I made you breakfast. Or John, sleep in you deserve it, I will make you breakfast later." John continued on growing quite the smile on his face.

Sarah walked by and said, "Or wake the hell up John it's sunrise." Sarah said slamming a pillow into her son's face.

Cameron stood there with a smile. "I think I like your mom's idea the best, it is the most efficient time and resource wise."

"No, no, no. Delete her idea. It sucks." John voiced in a defeated tone.

"Eat some breakfast; we are going out for the day in about 20 minutes." Sarah told John.

Sarah walked up to Weaver in the other room. "So what are we to with a machine on our ass and no money?" Sarah informed Weaver.

"The machine is after Savannah, not you. It would be more likely that even if it saw you it would not engage since you aren't the priority of its mission. If it does engage you, you have Cameron. Here is a three thousand dollar Visa debit card. That should be enough for seven cell phones and food. "Weaver answered Sarah. "Anything else?"

"No." Sarah said and walked upstairs and took a shower. She was visibly tired since she didn't have any sleep from last night at all. She stood there as the shower water hit her body. With everything happening so fast, she didn't know if he was being over protective of her son, or not protective enough. The idea of her sharing guardianship of John with Cameron made her uneasy. She finished her shower with none of the answers she was trying to sort out. She grabbed a towel and started to get ready.

Ellison grabbed his belongings and headed out the door first. He didn't say much. John didn't know if he was upset about something or if he was still trying to come to terms with everything. Next Weaver was carrying Savannah and John Henry was right behind them. John Henry looked and smiled at John.

"If you could, please get smart phones. That way I can program them later for our own secure lines." John Henry said. He didn't even wait for Cameron or John to acknowledge, he just followed Weaver out of the door for the garage.

Sarah came down the stairs to see John and Cameron sitting on the sofa watching the television.

"You two ready to go or what?" Sarah said pretending like she has been ready for the past ten minutes.

"Sure mom, do you need another hour for your hair or are you going for the shut the hell up John pony tail look today?" John asked feeling Cameron elbowing him in the ribs.

"I like it, I am definitely going with the shut the hell up look with a side of I am your mother so do what I say look today." Sarah sarcastically fired back at John.

"Nice." John said getting up. Cameron didn't say much as she was unaware of Sarah's attitude for her. She figured it would be best just to be silent. They all left the house and Sarah locked the door behind them.

"Are we going to call for a cab?" John lazily asked.

"We can talk it today; we all could use the exercise." Sarah replied.

"There is a large electronics store about a mile from here. I saw it on the way home from the mall." Cameron pronounced to the others walking down the sidewalk.

"Good call Cam, I could use some headphones too for the next time my mom gives me the infamous John Connor, be smarter speeches." John snickered as he ducked out of his mothers reach and next to Cameron.

"You're lucky you have her guarding you John. On second thought, hit my son on the head Cameron." Sarah looked at Cameron.

Cameron reached up and lightly hit John on the back of the head.

"Wait I thought you were my guardian and only listened to me." John questioned Cameron.

"I don't have a mission priority; you gave me free reign to think for myself remember?" Cameron looked at John with a slight smile. Even Sarah laughed a little at her son and how his plan backfired.

"It's going to be one of those days isn't it?" John said out loud not really directed at anyone.

They arrived at the large electronic store and walked inside. They were approached by a lot of salesmen but repeatedly said they didn't need help. In the middle of the store there was a large cell phone area. To the right there was a ton of computers and laptops. On the left hand side of the store were movies, music, and video games.

The three of them looked at the cell phones for quite a while. However they each had their own idea of what phones would be the best. Sarah argued for just a simple phone, but John and Cameron both told her John Henry wanted a Smart phone, so her idea was tossed. Cameron liked the Blackberry because it was the most battery efficient. John liked the Apple iPhone just because it seemed to have all the newest and greatest programs to play with.

"We are definitely going with seven iPhones." John said looking at Cameron and Sarah.

"The battery life of the Blackberry is 12.45% better, John." Cameron countered him.

"As the leader of future resistance, we are completely going with the iPhone." John claimed.

Cameron turned and looked at Sarah. Clearly Cameron was done arguing.

"Fine," Sarah replied back to her son too exhausted to fight with her son about cost over fun. She walked over to a salesman and asked him to round up seven of the new phones.

Sarah sat down and waited while the salesman rung her phones up and started to activate them. Sarah cut him off saying that she will activate them later and just deal with the phones.

After the transaction was done, Sarah got up and walked up to John.

"I'm going to go find a cheap laptop for home as well. We need something that we can do research on and not be blind to the world. I will be over there after you two are done looking around at cell phone accessories." Sarah told her son. "Here you can carry your beloved iPhones." Sarah continued as she handed her son the shopping bag.

John noticed Cameron walking the around the cell phone area scanning for threats in the nearby area. John stared at her thinking it was actually kind of cute, yet nice she was always wanting to protect him. John started to daydream a little when he noticed her stopping in her tracks. John walked up to her.

"What's wrong?" John asked. Cameron was still silent and just nodded her head in the direction she was looking at.

"Wow, what are the chances of this happening?" John muttered under his voice locking on to who Cameron was staring at.


	17. An Old Ally

**Chapter 17: An Old Ally**

John Henry and Catherine Weaver sat in the car driving around the outskirts of Orlando looking for buildings to lease for Weaver's Corporation.

"Ms. Weaver, won't my brother know that you will try to reform Zeira Corporation and just find us again?" John Henry asked looking at Savannah in the back seat taking a nap.

"Yes John Henry it will. I know there are a lot of similar traits of what you call your brother, but you must know that it is Skynet or as is known in this time as Kaliba." Weaver explained to John Henry.

"Ms. Weaver, if that is the case, is the timeline to judgment day going to approach quicker?" John Henry asked.

"It is quite possible John Henry that it will. However that will be our little secret. And we can discuss this further in detail later. Let's not scare Savannah. "Weaver calmly told John Henry.

"So what shall our new corporation name be?" John Henry asked curiously.

"It will be called Windrunner, John Henry. On the surface, it will act as a front for natural power from the sun and wind. The basement will be your home to track and whatever you feel is necessary. " Weaver looked at John Henry while driving. "I will put you in charge of finding a building suitable to your electrical needs and access to utilities."

"I find it ironic Ms. Weaver. Here we will have a company that will work to save the planet, yet in the basement, we will have a hidden level that will specialize in equipment that can destroy the planet. "John Henry spoke.

Weaver and John Henry looked at a lot of buildings and about an hour later John Henry found one he really liked. They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the vehicle. Weaver grabbed Savannah who was still asleep and carried her like a true mother would. John Henry started analyzing the building for power requirements and foundation.

"I suggest we lease this building Ms. Weaver. There is an 80% chance that this building would meet all of my suggested requirements. I like the power capabilities here. I would like to walk around to see if the building is indeed secure enough and examine the basement level that is currently for used for storage. "John Henry told Weaver.

"That is fine John Henry; I will call and talk to the leasing agent here." Weaver replied to John Henry as Savannah finally woke up.

"Mommy, can I go with John Henry? This place looks cool!" Savannah said seemingly revived from her nap.

"Only if John Henry says it is okay Savannah." Weaver smiled at Savannah.

"Come Savannah you can look at the air ducts when you stand on my shoulders." John Henry motioned for Savannah to come with him and they started to survey the building.

Back at the electronics store John and Cameron stood watching the familiar face.

"You think she followed us here?" John asked Cameron.

"I don't know, it is highly unlikely since we traveled across states." Cameron replied.

"Let's go say hi." John said.

"No." Cameron said. "I will go walk by her; it could be a message or a trap."

John stood there and watched as Cameron approached her. He decided to disobey her orders and walked around to the other side of her.

"Hola." John said. "Como estas?" John continued as he looked at the Latino girl, or Chloa, as he remembered who gave him and Cameron passports right before the big jail break and Cameron's death.

The girl acted like she was going to ignore them both until she put the music CD back on the shelf. She took out a piece of paper and a pencil. She wrote on the note and stuck it in the CD rack next to the music she was looking at about a minute ago. Without saying anything she turned around and walked away. John watched her walk away and was scratching his head wondering what was going on. That was probably the weirdest thing he could have expected from her. Cameron reached out and took the note that she left. She opened it up and started to read it.

The note read: Being watched. She left an address on the paper saying where to meet and to meet at midnight, you two come alone.

Cameron handed the note and John read it. After he was done, he took the note and crumpled it up and shoved it in his pocket. He noticed his mom was walking towards them.

"You two don't need to buy music, and before I hear your wise cracks the answer is still no." Sarah said carrying the bags with the laptop. "Here you carry the laptop Cameron; I wouldn't want you to feel left out of the pleasures of shopping bags." Sarah said with a smile on her face.

"Thank you." Cameron said not knowing what else to say.

"Let's get out of here and pick up some groceries at the supermarket on the way home." Sarah told them as she was heading to the door.

Cameron and John followed her out the door and started walking to the supermarket.

"Mom we can't buy anything cold, it will spoil on the walk home won't it?" John asked.

"It will be fine John, quit trying to weasel out of shopping." Sarah said knowing her son hates going shopping.

"We won't be able to buy anything frozen, but cold products will be fine. They won't reach a spoiling point by the time we get home. This is assuming we don't make any other stops or distractions." Cameron chimed in with her input.

After a five minute walk they reached the supermarket and walked in. Sarah stood in the entrance looking around almost like she was lost.

"You lost mom?" John snickered a little knowing that would aggravate his mother.

"The peanut butter and bread should be in aisle three according to the sign on the ceiling." Cameron spoke up. John almost busted out laughing when he turned his head and saw a big smile on Cameron's face.

"John, do you want to clean toilets when you get home?" Sarah asked with almost no emotion.

"Uhhh, No?" John said sort of confused.

"Then shut up." Sarah said with a smile on her face looking at John.

"Why do I get in trouble and Cameron doesn't all the time?" John asked.

"Because you are my son and I really don't know how to punish a hyper alloy combat chassis do I?" Sarah replied.

"Good point." John shrugged his shoulders.

Cameron split off from John and Sarah figuring it was in her best interest to give Sarah a break from her. She looked down the aisles and grabbed some medical supplies to change bandages that John needed to have replaced that night. She met back up with Sarah and John who had about a half full shopping cart of food. Cameron smiled finding peanut butter in the cart.

"Don't say a word Cameron. I will make John cook if you do." Sarah threatened.

Cameron stayed silent like Sarah told her to be and turned around looking of other food items.

"Oh, so I did find a weakness! Cameron will protect my son from physical harm and labor he hates." Sarah chuckled to herself. "I think this might be a great day after all!"

They finished up shopping and checked out. John carried about 4 bags of food, Sarah carried three, and Cameron carried the rest. Not much was said on the way home other than things Sarah wanted to have John and Cameron do around the house. She also mentioned Cameron to recheck John's wounds.

They walked into the house and it was silent. No one was home yet. John put the bags on the counter near the refrigerator and headed to the sofa to watch some TV.

"John, there are bags to empty." Sarah told her son.

"I will put it all away." Cameron said. "He should rest his leg and arm to prevent the injuries from getting worse."

"Well if that's the case." Sarah replied as she put her bags on the counter. "I'll go watch some television too." She continued as she walked and sat on the recliner next to the sofa.

Cameron spent about fifteen minutes organizing the groceries so it made logical sense where to find the items needed. She saw that Sarah passed out on the chair and John got up to see what Cameron was doing.

"Thank you, for all that. You didn't have to do that." John told Cameron.

"I figured it is what you wanted me to say." Cameron said.

"I want you say what you want to say, not what you think I want you to say. I treated you like a machine. I shouldn't have done that." John said a little upset with himself.

"It's okay." Cameron said hiding that she did feel better by John saying that. "I should change your bandage on your arm." Cameron leaned in on John and with her right hand grabbed the medical supply kit. She removed John's old bandage and she checked for infection. Everything was clean. She began to wrap up John's arm. John reached out with his left hand trying to open the refrigerator to grab a soda.

"You know the arc will not be enough to get a drink. I am in the way." Cameron said.

"Yes it will, I have plenty of room." John tried to outsmart Cameron and open the door only to have it stop at Cameron's side. "I hate it when you always right. You cheated you know, calculating and all that.

"You could have counted the tiles. Eight across means you need eight down. "Cameron said smiling at him. " I am almost done with your new bandage; you can get a drink in a minute."

John was still being persistent. He struggled getting his hand in the fridge with the door only half open. He thought he had the soda but leaned too much and fell knocked Cameron into the fridge with John right against her. Lucky for him he got his hand out in time. Despite being pinned up against the refrigerator, Cameron and John were both silent. Cameron stared at John and John stared back at her. John felt butterflies in his stomach and instinctively leaned in a little more. Cameron looked and leaned towards John. Just as their lips almost touched the door knob shook and opened. John tried to gain composure and didn't want to get caught, backed away from Cameron and leaned on the opposite side on the kitchen area.

John watched as Savannah, Weaver, and John Henry entered the house. Weaver looked as Sarah was sleeping on the chair and John and Cameron were in the kitchen. John looked like he was guilty of something and Weaver just smiled at John as she carried in some things from the car. Sarah woke up from her nap to see the house was full once again.

"Oh, John Henry, I got us some awesome phones." John said.

"Excellent young Connor, why don't you and Cameron come down to the basement and you can help reprogram these phones. I think you will find it interesting." John Henry said.

John and Cameron disappeared with John Henry and got to work on the iPhones. Sarah worked on cleaning the house a little while and spent some time on the new laptop. Weaver ended up taking Savannah to a gymnastics class to guard her. The day was getting late when Weaver and Savannah returned. She tucked in the little girl in her bed and went down to see that John Henry, Cameron, and John finishing up the phones. They all went upstairs and each got their unique phone set with a special password.

"I am going patrolling. I will be back in the morning." Cameron voiced as she walked out the door.

"Well then I am going to bed. I am beat." Sarah said as she saw Cameron headed outside.

"John Henry and I are going to go over some plans for the new office in the basement. I will let you get some rest John." Weaver explained as John Henry and she headed to the basement.

John stretched out on the sofa and heard Cameron come back in.

"John, it's about midnight. Did you want to come with me or get some rest?" Cameron whispered in case John was asleep.

"Let's go." John said as he walked out the door with Cameron right behind him.


	18. Sneaking Out

**Chapter 18: Sneaking Out**

John walked outside the house and waited for Cameron. It was a nice clear night. John could see the stars in the sky. Cameron was a little more careful than John and slowly closed the door so no one would hear them leave. John looked like his mind was occupied with other things, rather than the minor details of keeping quiet. John saw Cameron lock the door and walk up to him. He noticed that she was slow to approach him.

"You sure you want to go? It could be dangerous." Cameron told John.

"I know Cam, but she helped us before. I think she is an ally. How dangerous do you think it will be?" John replied to Cameron.

Cameron lifted her shirt in the back a little to show John she had a gun. John just looked at her and laughed.

"You always carry a gun. Like that is something new." John teased Cameron.

They walked towards the address the Chola gave them. The night was almost too quiet for John.

Cameron was too busy searching for threats to really pay attention to John. John could tell she was being very protective.

"Sometimes I will have to put myself in danger to ultimately win this war." John commented.

"I know John. I just don't like this. There are too many unknowns in this situation." Cameron told him trying to loosen up.

They arrived at the location they were supposed to meet the Chola at. It was an abandoned building. They walked up to the door.

"Stay here. I will check it out." Cameron told John.

"Wait, let's walk around the building first. Just to make sure this isn't a trap." John instructed Cameron.

The walk around the building was clear. There was no danger to be seen or heard. Cameron looked more satisfied. They both reached for the door at the same time and John ended up having his hand resting on top of Cameron's hand that was on the door knob. They both stopped for a moment and John turned his head to look at Cameron. Cameron took her hand off the door knob but noticed John's hand was still holding hers. Silence filled the area.

"John." Cameron whispered breaking the deft sounds of Orlando's night. "Are you ready?"

"Oh. Uhh. Yeah." John said almost confused with himself. He let Cameron's hand go and Cameron opened the door. The room was empty. It had the one door in which they entered and one window on the far side of it of the room. It was dark inside, and John didn't see anyone.

"No one is here." John said sort of upset that this was going to be a wasted trip.

"You are late." The Chola appeared from the shadows on the opposite side of the room where John was looking.

Cameron drew her gun without hesitation and pointed it at her. After scanning her for potential weapons she finally withdrew the gun that was pointed at her head. Cameron seemed to be edgy. She was constantly looking around the room worried that they would be ambushed.

"We are alone, Cameron." She said emotionless.

"Look, what is all this about, why are we hiding in the shadows. I personally don't like it." John said.

"Trust me, you are safe. No human or machine is here but us three." The Chola said.

"Trust comes with a name. You know Cameron and I, but I don't know you at all. Or should I just keep referring to you as the Chola?" John said.

"You can call me whatever you want, John. If a name would make you feel better, then call me Sonya." She spoke at John.

"So Sonya, why are we here?" Cameron asked.

Sonya tossed an envelope at Cameron and Cameron started to open it.

"These are pictures of Danny Dyson. They are recent." Cameron said to John. "Where did you get these?" Cameron asked looking at Sonya.

"I am watching his friend or coworker named Mark. They are working together on something big, some sort of new processor." Sonya explained to Cameron.

"You are watching his friend?" Do you?" John was asking as he was cut off.

"Work for the human resistance? Something like that." Sonya interrupted John.

"What is in it for you? Why tell us?" John quizzed Sonya.

"Who do you know in the resistance?" Cameron asked approaching her. John noticed that she seemed a little more concerned with this situation than normal.

"I will tell you later Cameron." Sonya said. "If I could do it myself John, then I wouldn't have bothered you. I need to get going. He will know if I am gone too long. Here is the address they will be testing the new processor. A lot of people will be there to watch how it performs. It is a private affair. Figure out on your own how to make it inside. It goes down in about 44 hours."

John walked to the window of the building trying to figure out what Danny and this Mark character were up to on this new chip. Is it the same one he stole from Cyberdyne as a kid and destroyed in the molten steel? His mind was going a mile a minute.

"Oh shit." John said looking towards the window. He heard Sonya leave the building. Cameron drew her gun again and walked up to John. She pushed him aside and scanned for anything that moved outside the window. She saw it was clear and heard a vibrating noise. Cameron looked at John.

John held up his phone. "My mom is calling." He moved the phone to his ear slowly.

"Mom, relax, I am fine. Cameron and I are just doing a patrol." John tried to get more information out, but was cut short after he thought the phone speaker was going to blow up from his mom yelling in the phone.

"See, like I said the other night Cam, I think it is easer to negotiate with a terminator than my mother." John said smiling at Cameron.

"We better get back." Cameron said.

They both left the building and headed back home. John didn't say much as he was trying to figure out a way to calm his mom down when he got back inside.

"Hey if worse comes to shove, you can hide behind me when we get home." Cameron said with a smile trying to break the silence.

"She probably has thermite on her." John laughed. "I wouldn't put it past her."

They got home and John opened the door noticing it was unlocked. As he walked in he saw his mother standing in the kitchen with some coffee. John could tell he was about to hear it.

"So, what John Connor, you just decide to go for a walk at midnight, not telling me, and know damn well there is a terminator out there that wants to kill you." Sarah told her son trying to keep her cool.

"You know what mom, you are going to be pissed anyways, but I will go ahead and tell you the truth." John started off. "In the electronics store we ran into the Chola also known as Sonya you trusted to give us passports in the music section. She had a message she had to give me but it wasn't safe in the electronics store. She said if I don't show, she will disappear and burn the information. You or Cameron by yourself wouldn't cut it. It had to be me. I picked Cameron to go with me because frankly she is the ultimate protector. She can take bullets, throw a terminators into walls, and no offence cuter than you mom." John prayed that last line would ease his mom up a bit.

Cameron looked at John and smiled on his attempt to tell her she is cute. She noticed Sarah was still not too happy about the situation, but didn't look like she was going to jump over the counter and strangle John anymore.

"It was still a stupid risk John, you know that." Sarah counted John.

"Yes, I know it was mom. However, I am John Connor and I will have to take risks from time to time. Skynet will not stop, nor can I. You know that and I know that. I took safety by bringing Cameron. You should be happy I took Cameron and didn't try to go on my own." John told him mom.

"Maybe you are right. But I would still like to know where my son goes off to in the middle of the night. What did you find out?" Sarah asked seemly more calm.

"Well if I had a hot date sometime at midnight, did you really want to know all the details?" John asked tormenting his mom.

"Funny, keep it up and you will have a hot date cleaning the toilets for the remainder of what is left of tonight." Sarah hashed back at John.

"Sonya told me that she knows where Danny Dyson will be two nights from tonight. Something about a private showing of a new processor that he and some guy named Mark has been working on for a while. We will have to figure out how to get invited or break in undetected." John explained.

"So what is your game plan then John?" Sarah asked.

"Honestly mom, I really don't know. " John said.

"I am going to make one more round outside just in case anyone saw us coming back." Cameron said to the both of them.

She walked out the door and left John and Sarah alone. She really didn't need to patrol again, but figured it was for the best.

"Maybe Cameron can come up with a best possible solution after she checks out the building tomorrow sometime." Sarah said.

"And maybe I want my mother's opinion about it. Look mom, she can take bullets. You can't. She can spot someone with a gun further than any human can. She can even help manipulate people and never flinch. But she doesn't have that bullshit mother's instinct about things like you do. I still want your opinion on these things. I order for us to win, we have to use everyone's strengths to cover up our weaknesses." John said smiling at his mom.

"So can I at least get a hug from my mom and not get in trouble for once? This whole John Connor and keep everyone happy is harder than taking out a terminator." John said over his mom's shoulder has she hugged him.

"You are right John. Just keep me in the loop next time. That is all I ask." Sarah said patting her son on the back.

"Mom, you know if I would have told you about tonight, you would have been hiding in the bushes with a shotgun." John grinned.

"Yeah, but you or Cameron would have never saw me." Sarah laughed knowing her son was right. "Alright so maybe I don't need to know everything."

Cameron walked in the door and saw John hugging his mom.

"Cameron, new rule, if anything happens to my son, it is your coltan ass on the line. Got it?" Sarah said slowly lifting a smile at Cameron.

"I think that was her way of saying it is a truce." John told Cameron shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm going to bed. No more sneaking outside tonight." Sarah said as she walked back to her room and headed back to bed.

John headed to the sofa and took his shoes off. He laid down and stretched out tried after today's events. Cameron walked over and sat next to John.

"Are you going to lay down with me and protect me while I sleep again?" John smiled at Cameron.

"Sure." Cameron smiled hoping for some reason he would say that. "So you think I am cuter than your mom huh?"

John blushed.

"Or was it a lie just like how your story was to your mom saying that Sonya would only talk to you?" Cameron looked John in the eyes.

"The white lie was to save my own skin with my mom. There would be no reason to lie about you being cuter than my mom." John said still blushing.

Cameron's eyes lit up a soft blue hue at John's reply. She cuddled up next to John.

"So do you have a plan to acquire Danny Dyson or did blow the question off until the morning so I could figure out a plan for you by sunrise?" Cameron whispered in John's ear.

"Definitely blew it off." John said. She heard John fall to sleep and she laid there staring at him. Cameron figured she had about three hours to come up with a plan.


	19. Preparations

**Chapter 19: Preparations**

Cameron laid there with John cuddled up against her on the sofa. Half of her was checking John's pulse and sleeping patterns. He didn't seem to be able to lie still while sleeping much. She figured that just like future John, John in the present had a lot of nightmares. The other half of her mind was figuring out what all needed to be done in order to infiltrate the meeting that Danny and Mark would be at. She calculated that they will need business attire, handguns, and a strategy to convince Danny and Mark to come with them. Cameron couldn't really figure out the best way to simply ask the two men to join them without a meaningful reason. Weaver may be able to lend assistance she thought. She wanted to have the full plan for John and then have John deliver that idea to his mother. It would make him look intelligent and show his leadership traits.

Cameron slowly got up without disturbing John's sleep. She quietly walked to where Weaver and John Henry were at. Like true machines they weren't sleeping, yet surprisingly playing a game of dungeons and dragons. Cameron tilted her head to the side a little wondering why they would be playing a board game at four in the morning.

"Hello Cameron, how are you this early morning?" John Henry asked.

"I am fine John Henry. Thank you for asking." Cameron replied. "Ms. Weaver I need help on something."

"Ask away Cameron. As long as it is not about seducing your young John Connor, I should be of use to you." Weaver told Cameron, seeing if that would have thrown her off guard. "If you are about to ask about the board game, it teaches John Henry about chance and strategy."

"I am just a machine, Ms. Weaver. I don't think John could fall in love with me." Cameron replied softly.

"Humans have a skeleton made of bone; your skeleton is made of coltan. They have a heart, you have a power cell, and your brain compared to a human brain works almost the same. You really don't have a point Cameron. However I have to say I find it interesting how you bring up that John can never love you, but you can't love John. I won't dig into that data yet since I don't think you came down here for that. "Weaver lectured Cameron.

"You are right, I am down here because I am stuck trying to figure out a good mission plan for something that happens in two days time." Cameron spoke.

"And what is that mission, Cameron?" Weaver wondered.

Cameron sat down and explained everything that happened earlier tonight. How they met up with Sonya, the pictures, and the meeting that was going to happen.

"This is very interesting indeed Cameron. I am glad you told me." Weaver said.

"I am sure that John would have told you too in the morning. We are machines, so we don't exactly sleep." Cameron replied.

"This is true I suppose." Weaver told Cameron. "Well then tomorrow I will take care of the weapons and business attire clothing. John Henry will be going over to the new building we acquired. He will be remodeling the basement. Luckily for us it shouldn't be long before we can get Windrunner Corporation up and running so we have a valid reason of our expenses. How about tomorrow you three watch Savannah and take it easy. I think the amount of rest in this household is quite low." Weaver continued.

"That's fine with me. John and Sarah need a break. What shall we do with Savannah?" Cameron asked.

"I bought a jump rope for her and was going to help her learn how to use it. Maybe you three can help with that. Other than that, I would prefer you read to her and then some television. Nothing rated R. I don't feel like corrupting her mind at such a young age." Weaver smiled at Cameron.

Cameron walked back over to John and noticed Weaver and John Henry went back to playing more dungeons and dragons. She got back to the sofa and saw John tossing and turning. She carefully lied back down only to find John rolling right into her. Cameron put her hand on Johns back and suddenly he was calm. Cameron softly rubbed his back and started to wonder what his nightmares were about. She told herself that she would ask him later if he remembered them.

Hours passed and Cameron heard footsteps from the stairs. Sarah was awake and was headed in the kitchen.

"You know we have blankets Cameron." Sarah wittily told Cameron. "I mean I am not saying it isn't just adorable to see my son sleep hugging you in the morning. But I haven't nearly had enough coffee for that." She continued.

Sarah walked over and grabbed about three blankets and tossed them over John and Cameron.

"That is much better." Sarah said to herself.

She walked back to the kitchen and started to make coffee.

"So what's the game plan for today?" Sarah asked.

Cameron pushed away the blankets off of her and maneuvered her way off the sofa slowly so John could sleep more.

"Well we need to scout out the area where the meeting is. I want to know all the exits, nearby buildings, basically everything. Weaver said she was going to go buy us business clothes and some weapons. I figured I could go patrol the area, while you and John rested and watched Savannah." Cameron explained to Sarah.

"Wow, quite the plan. How do you manage to get my teenage son not jump on your back and follow your every move?" Sarah asked.

"I am going to leave now. That's how." Cameron told Sarah.

Sarah nodded and saw John Henry and Weaver head to the door.

"Where are you two going?" Sarah asked

"John Henry is going to remodel the new building of Windrunner Corporation. If you or John gets bored you can go help him. I am going to get us supplies, clothes, and other needed materials." Weaver said.

"And you just know everyone's sizes for clothes?" Sarah laughed at Weaver.

"Yes, I do. Ms Connor." Weaver said as she morphed into a perfect image of Sarah, then morphed into Cameron, then turned into Ellison, and finally John Connor. She changed back to her normal shape. "Any more questions?" she continued with her patented smirk on her face.

Sarah stood there in a clear defeat on that conversation.

"Damn metal." She whispered under her breath.

"Careful Ms. Connor, I could accidentally get you a size too small. I heard humans hate that." Weaver overheard Sarah's wise crack.

Sarah smiled. "Do machines understand this gesture?" as Sarah raised her middle finger to Weaver with her coffee in her other hand.

"I don't think I know that language." John Henry said.

"I will explain it to you later John Henry. We must get going. Weaver replied.

Cameron followed them out of the door and now it was just Sarah, her sleeping son, and Savannah who was also sleeping. A few hours past and it was completely peaceful for Sarah. John started to stir and finally woke up. He saw his mom sitting on the recliner watching television.

"Where is Cameron?" John asked yawning at his mother.

"Good morning to you too John." Sarah replied to her son.

"Huh? Oh good morning mom." John told his mom sitting up.

"To answer your question, your robotic dream girl went out to patrol the meeting location. She should be back in the afternoon. She seemed like she wanted to really research the area. It looks like it is just us and Savannah for the most part of today. Cameron said something about we could teach Savannah to jump rope today." Sarah explained to her son.

"Mom, she is just different. I trust her. She is important to me, and the future and." John trying to explain.

"I know. But you don't have to tell me that every five minutes. I hear the little one coming down the steps now." Sarah said.

"Hi Sarah, Hi John! Where's mommy?" Savannah asked.

"She is running some errands today, Savannah. She should be back later." Sarah told her.

Savannah sat down on Sarah's lap and got quiet. She looked a little sad even.

"So Savannah, I heard we are going to learn how to jump rope today. Is that true?" John asked her.

"Yeah!" Savannah excitedly said and jumped off Sarah's lap and ran for the jump rope.

"It's adorable how something that simple makes someone so happy." Sarah told John.

John stood up and got some breakfast for Savannah and himself.

"First thing is first squirt. Eat your breakfast!" John smiled at Savannah.

The little girl ate her breakfast and put the dishes in the sink. She headed to the backyard with the jump rope and started trying her best. She was able to do one or two jumps then the forces of gravity caved in on her. John walked outside and tried to show give her some better tips on how to hold the rope. The grass stains and laughs were adding up quickly as Sarah observed her son. She decided it was time for the master to show them how it was done.

"Can I try?" Sarah asked Savannah.

"Sure!" she said handing the rope to Sarah.

Sarah was a little rusty at first but was able to do about ten jumps before she would get caught and the rope would trick her. She was content because her son was only able to do about five. Her motherly experience was clearly supporting the cause.

Cameron returned home and opened the front door, but didn't see anyone inside. She heard noises outside and followed them. She was shocked to see the three having so much fun over a rope. She stayed back not wanting to interrupt the moment.

Sarah heard Cameron come inside and saw her just watching in the kitchen. The fact that Cameron didn't automatically come outside to take John's attention made Sarah feel like she wasn't there to completely take over her son. She respected Cameron for that. After about ten minutes more, Sarah was tired and yelled in the house for Cameron who was in the kitchen.

"Cameron, I am beat, I made it to like forty jumps. Did you want to try to beat the record?" Sarah said covered in sweat.

"It was only thirty eight mom, quit cheating!" John remarked to his mother.

Half of Sarah didn't know if Cameron could jump rope, which would have been fine since she would keep the record and prove to John that there are still some differences between humans and machines. The other half of her felt like she should include Cameron and not be so hard on her. That half of her mind scared Sarah.

"Okay, I can try. Can someone show me how it is done?" Cameron asked.

"Show her how it is done, jump rope master." John said flinging the rope at his mom.

Sarah started jumping rope and was on pace to beat her record. John and Savannah counted out loud and Cameron watched her every move.

"Ha fifty two!" Sarah said getting tripped up, then handing over the rope to Cameron. "I am finished." Sarah sat down on the grass. Savannah joined her.

Cameron tried the first time and failed miserably. She got the rope swing right, but her feet didn't react fast enough. Her second try was a little better, making one jump, but the rope hit her feet the second time around. Cameron studied the rope and her HUD started to craft ways of succeeding.

"Give it another shot Cam." John said. "You got it."

Cameron's third try was brilliant. She slowed her swing time down and was able to jump in perfect timing with the rope. Sarah sat and studied her. A machine could actually be agile enough to jump rope, and yet kick another machine's face in.

Cameron counted that she was at fifty one and purposely made a mistake so Sarah could keep the record. It was a small enough that John didn't catch it, but Sarah did.

John stood up and raised his mom's hand in the air and said. "The jump rope winner, mother of the leader of the human resistance, and all time toast burner, Sarah Connor!" he started to laugh.

Cameron smiled and Sarah took John's leg out under him making him fall on his butt onto the lawn.

"You deserved that son." Sarah laughed and threw some grass at John face.

Sarah looked at Cameron and nodded at her. Almost like a thank you in Sarah's own way. She heard a car pull up in the driveway and realized it was Weaver. She was carrying a lot of bags of clothes in the house and then what looked to be quite a bit of firepower.

"Savannah how was your day?" Weaver said.

"Mommy, Sarah is the winner of jump rope!" the little girl said giving her mom a hug.

"That is great Savannah, now go up stairs and take a shower, you are quite dirty." Weaver said smiling at her.

Savannah ran up the stairs and did what her mom told her to do. Another car pulled in the driveway this time and it was Ellison.

He walked in the door and saw the bags of new clothes and new handguns on the kitchen floor.

"Was it buy three outfits, get a free handgun day?" Ellison asked Weaver in an almost serious tone.

"Not quite James. Did you get the ID's?" Weaver replied back to him.

"Yes Mam." Ellison handed the new ID's to Weaver.

"Excellent. They are perfect James. Thank you." Weaver told him. "Now that we are all here, let's put all this upstairs and meet back down here to discuss tomorrow night. We have a lot to go over."


	20. A Painter's Touch

**Chapter 20: A Painter's Touch**

The next morning came around and John was awoken with a wonderful smell coming from the kitchen.

"Mom, whatever you are fixing it smells absolutely wonderful. What is it?" John asked being lazy on the sofa.

John waited for a reply but no one answered. He got up to see what was going on only to find Cameron was alone in the kitchen.

"Good morning John. You smell chocolate chip pancakes. I saw how to make them on the cooking channel last night after you fell asleep. I thought I would make you some for breakfast."Cameron replied.

Sarah came down the steps to see Cameron serving John two big pancakes.

"Good Morning Sarah, would you like some pancakes? I should be able to make about six more." Cameron smiled as she asked.

"Sure," Sarah said. She really didn't know what to say. How could she really say no, she thought to herself.

Cameron served up two pancakes for Sarah and she tried them out.

"Wow, I must say, these are really good Cameron." Sarah replied

"Thank you. I am glad you like them." Cameron said.

"See mom, now this is a breakfast!" John jabbed at his mother. What a great way to start the day off right he thought. Eat a great breakfast and make fun of his mother's cooking skills all before nine in the morning.

"I agree John. You deserve a big breakfast this morning after falling asleep last night talking about how we are going to carry out the mission. You stayed awake a whole five minutes! I guess you didn't hear the part about how you are going to help John Henry do some real physical labor this morning and afternoon." Sarah told her son slowly defining a smile on her face.

"I should have seen this coming. I would just be so scared to go alone so I guess Cameron will have to go with me to keep me safe." John sarcastically replied to his mother. Checkmate he thought to himself.

Sarah almost choked on her pancakes that Cameron gave her. "I guess you are right, John. I would hate to send you alone. Cameron, make sure to give John the physical labor. I think you and I can agree that John needs to build up some muscle to equal his charming wit." Sarah told Cameron. "Surrender yet John?" she looked at her son.

"Sure mom, whatever you say." John said eating his breakfast.

Weaver walked in the room surprised that the kitchen was so quiet. "John, I processed more of what you said after your mother went to bed last night. I agree we should only have four people go tonight. You and Cameron can be the first team, and Sarah and I will be the other team. I will tell Mr. Ellison that he will stay and watch the house and Savannah." Weaver explained as she was looking at Cameron's cooking in the kitchen.

John smiled as he was finishing up his pancakes. Cameron smiled at John and took a piece of pancake off of his plate and ate it. "I figured that it would be best to have one human with one protector tonight. Two teams to see what is going on having one team to protect the other in case it gets out of control." John explained as he washed the dish in the sink.

"I agree John. It is a smart move." Weaver reinforced his idea.

Sarah stopped eating and looked at her son.

"Well mom, Cameron and I are off to help John Henry. See ya later this afternoon." John smirked at his mom walking out the door. Cameron was right behind him.

"I see now where your son gets his stubbornness Ms. Connor. It is definitely your side of the family." Weaver said as she walked back to see what Savannah was up to.

Sarah finished the rest of her breakfast and went upstairs to take a shower.

John and Cameron got in the car and headed off to the Windrunner Corporation building.

"So any chance we can skip helping John Henry and go to the movies or something?" John asked Cameron who was driving.

"I told Sarah we would help John Henry. So in short John, no." Cameron replied hoping not to disappoint John.

"It was worth a shot." John said.

They arrived at the building and John Henry was carrying out rubble into the dumpster.

"Hi John and Cameron, how are you today?" John Henry asked covered in dust and debris.

"I am good John Henry. We are here to help you out for awhile today." John answered his question.

"Excellent. I am able to take care of the basement remodeling myself. But I would like you and Cameron to paint the lobby and clean it up. I think you will be able to give it a much more human feel to it than I could." John Henry said. "The paint and rollers are in the lobby on the desk. If you need anything I will be in the basement remodeling."

"I will do clean up detail. You can do the painting." Cameron said to John.

John sighed to himself and walked into the building. He saw the paint cans and the roller on the desk just like John Henry said. Cameron already started to help John Henry clean up the basement so John didn't have her in the way.

Hours passed and it was now the afternoon. John finally finished up painting. Cameron looked at him and had a smile on her face. She thought that there might have been more paint on the floor and John than on the walls. However, the walls did look good. There were some streaks and lines, but it added character to the office.

"It looks good John. I think you could blend in with the walls perfectly." She grinned at John. "I will start picking up the newspapers on the ground."

"Oh gee thanks Cam, oh wait did I miss this spot over here?" John pointed at the wall.

John snuck up to Cameron and hugged her.

"What was that for?" Cameron asked looking at now how her clothes were covered in wet paint as well.

"That was for your blending in comment, and you know it. Plus now it looks like we both had too much fun painting and it will drive my mom nuts." John explained.

John Henry came up the stairs to see the room painted and both of them covered in paint. He was carrying about two hundred pounds of concrete. "It looks like you two had fun." He said.

"See Cam," John whispered at her.

"Hey John Henry, I think Cameron and I are going to pick up the mess on the floor and head home. We need to shower and get ready for the night." John told John Henry.

John and Cameron picked up the newspapers on the ground and John took them to the dumpster outside. Cameron took a broom and swept out the rest of the paper remains into a garbage can. They picked up their belonging and headed home.

Cameron drove them back home and she noticed the John was asleep in the passenger seat. She pulled into the driveway and John woke up.

"That was fast." John said. He slowly got out of the vehicle and walked inside. His mom was busy researching guests that would be at the party.

"I see you are still spying on people." John said to his mom.

"You know it John. Did you paint each other or the building?" Sarah asked.

"I see you are humorous today." John slyly commented at his mom.

"Go clean up and come back down here. We are going over this plan one more time." Sarah told Cameron and John.

John headed up the stairs and took a hot shower. Steam filled the room and he shaved in the shower. He rested his head against the shower wall trying to get energy back after all the painting he did today. He stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist and headed to get some clothes. He sat on the bed resting. He felt like someone was watching him. Lifting his head up he saw Cameron with her hair in a wet pony tail and wearing baggy clothes.

"Are you okay John? You seem tired a lot lately and I noticed you aren't sleeping well at night." Cameron said walking up to him sitting beside him on the bed.

"I'm fine. Just a lot is going on. I keep dreaming about the future. Like bits and pieces of events of the future and my past. Maybe that's why I sleep better when you are around me. I know you can protect me." John explained to Cameron. "That and this physical labor wore me out. I need to work out more. The leader of the resistance is sore and a wimp."

"You should work out more. It would help you mentally and physically. If you want we could go running in the morning." Cameron told John. She ran her hands on John's shoulders and started to massage them. John didn't fight her at all and his shoulders felt like they were slowly turning into jelly. It felt wonderful. "You should probably get dressed. If we aren't downstairs in five minutes, I am sure your mom will come up and see what is going on."

"Yeah, I guess you are right." John said standing up slowly.

Cameron gave him a hug. "Maybe later we can talk more about your nightmares. I can protect you better once I know what they are."

John walked downstairs and joined his mom, Cameron, and Weaver near the sofa. Ellison and Savannah were outside playing some kind of games.

"Okay so let's go over this one more time to make sure we have this right. The meeting is in two hours." Sarah proclaimed and worried that something was too easy about this secret meeting.

"Mom, it is going to be fine. It is probably just another nerd and high roller meeting for a new computer chip." John said.

"Still John, it is best to be ready for anything." Weaver corrected the young leader.

They sat and reviewed the plans and backup plans one final time. They all went upstairs and changed into business attire. John came downstairs in a decent black suit and tie. His mom came down in a female's business suit. John about dropped his jaw watching Cameron walking down the stairs and in a black dress. It was a strapless dress with the length going down to her knees. Her hair was long and flowing down to her upper back.

"Wow, you look great Cam." John stuttered. Sarah drilled him in the side for staring too much.

"Thank you. You should thank Weaver as well, she bought me this dress." Cameron smiled at John looking at Sarah.

Sarah gave a massively cold stare at Weaver.

"I told you Sarah. Sometimes I forget and get a size too small, or I just buy Cameron a really stunning dress." Weaver smirked at Sarah.

They all got in the car. John and Cameron sat in the back. Weaver and Sarah sat in the front. No one really talked all that much on the drive over to the building. They pulled in and a valet walked up to the car and waited for them to get out of the vehicle. They walked in the building and what Sarah researched was true. Most of the people that were there were either high technology companies or military. The event was going to start in ten minutes so they hurried and grabbed some seats. Cameron was busy scanning people to see if anyone matched profiles in her database. Nothing was coming up so far. She had John sit next to his mom and she sat on the other side of him. This allowed her to better protect him.

Everyone finished sitting down and the stage area lit up. The room darkened and a speaker came on stage. He thanked everyone for coming and introduced the two main speakers tonight.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, give a warm round of applause to Danny and Mark." The speaker proclaimed.

Danny and Mark took the stage. Danny walked up to the microphone.

"So who here is ready to get a glimpse of the future?" Danny asked.


	21. Danny Dyson

**Chapter 21: Danny Dyson**

As Danny asked his question the crowd cheered. "After today's demonstration of my prototype vision gear, I will be accepting orders and will be serving the high bidder first. That is my business." Danny explained. He was about the same age as John now, since John jumped through time.

Cameron was actively scanning Danny and others around him to make sure no terminators were close by. Her HUD reported back no threats.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly introduce K-Vision. It is a simple pair of glasses with a revolutionary CPU installed into the frame. What it gives you is a new way at looking at everything. It brings you a computerized HUD to your vision replacing the work of your right eye. It can help you track moving objects; perform biometric facial identification, and my personal favorite, an active targeting system. It will even allow you to take aim at a target and it will tell you the path of the projectile will go. No more will the military soldiers miss an important target, police grab the wrong person, and will keep everyone's safety first!" Danny explained as the crowd cheered.

"Now I know this is a lot to take in from a young kid as myself. So I will prove my work to you by giving a couple of demonstrations. The local police gave me information containing ten photos and personal information and identification of these people. Now I just need a random volunteer. Ah perfect! You sir in the front row, please come up here." Danny requested the man to do. He didn't look like anyone from the police, more like a lab rat from what John could tell.

The man put the glasses on his face and the police randomly started to bring two of the ten people that the police gave information to Danny about. The volunteer read off both names with ages, weight, and everything that was on file from the CD that Danny was given.

The crowd clapped again and Sarah and John looked at each other not liking these super glasses in the least.

"Now for the next and last demonstration of the night I will have my programmer Mark hang up three small square foot targets. Don't worry; it is just a low powered paint ball gun that we will be using. I do need another volunteer however."

Danny noticed that no one was volunteering so he cracked a joke. "See I will even use my glasses as a fashion statement." The crowd chuckled lightly at the joke as Danny put on the glasses. "Okay, so maybe they aren't as good looking as Oakley's." he joked again.

Danny scanned the room and the glasses picked up on a person and the HUD displayed the person's name. 'Target Identified: John Connor' the glasses read to Danny. Danny's smile quickly left his face.

"You sir, pointing at John, please come on stage." Danny requested.

John didn't want to go and looked at Cameron then his mom.

"I don't see any threats on stage." Cameron told John.

"It is fine John, we will be right here if anything happens." Sarah assured him.

John got to stage and Danny handed him the paintball gun. The distance was a little far and John was able to hit the target, but only on the corner of the square foot target.

"Now sir, try these shades on and give it a try." Mark said putting the shades on John.

John let him put the shades on and immediately saw a HUD come up on his right eye. It was sort of freaky to John. He took time to look around and the HUD could somehow figure out what his left eye was looking at and target on his vision. He looked at the HUD zeroed in on the center of the target. John thought that he was dead on, but the HUD told him to aim higher and to the left a little. The HUD flashed 'Miss' until John took its advice. Once he used the HUD's alignment it flashed 'Proceed for Direct Hit'. John pulled the trigger and hit the target dead on the center of the target.

"Very good, now try a moving target as Mark will pull this string on the next target causing it to move." Danny said to John and the crowd. He nodded to Mark to move the target and again John was able to hit the center of the moving target using the HUD's help.

John took the glasses off and handed them back to Mark. Danny walked up to John and patted him on his shoulder. He carefully slid something underneath his collar on his suit coat. Danny's eyes filled with contempt as he watched John go back to his seat.

Cameron saw Danny's move but was unable to detect what it was. Sarah saw Cameron look nervous and asked her what just happened.

"Danny put something on John's suit coat. I don't know what it is." Cameron leaned over and whispered to Sarah.

John got back to his seat and Cameron grabbed his arm.

"Take your coat off, you look like you are sweating." Cameron told John not wanting to worry him.

John looked at her weird and he slid his coat off and handed it to her.

Cameron looked for what Danny put on John's coat but couldn't locate it at first. She finally found a small piece of metal. She scanned it and it was some sort of tracking device. Danny obviously wanted to find John later. Cameron didn't trust Danny quite yet so she didn't want to take a risk and give the coat back to John..

Danny was wrapping up this meeting and told everyone that he will start taking calls tomorrow and his contact information will given on the way out of the door. He did say that if you are a potential million dollar investor on his prototype glasses, he would be willing to stay a while and talk tonight.

Cameron took the tracking device out of the coat and threw the coat on her seat as she got up. "I'm going to throw this tracking device in the bathroom. I don't want to take this thing back home with us." Cameron said.

"Did you find something on the coat?" Sarah asked Cameron

"Some sort of tracking device. I don't want it near John." Cameron replied.

"Maybe he wants to find me later." John told Cameron

"Maybe so John but I would rather stay here to meet him, or I will find him later myself. It is what I do best." Cameron smiled at John, trying to convince him she was right.

"No I will do it; I need to use the bathroom anyways since we are going to be here a while so we can talk to Danny. There is no point trying to find him later. Now is the time. You stay on John's hip pocket just in case anything crazy happens." Sarah instructed Cameron.

Most of the people filed out of the building except two people that were busy talking to Danny. John, Cameron, and Weaver were standing in a group waiting for Sarah to get back from the bathroom.

Sarah followed the signs to the bathroom carrying the tracking device in her pocket. There was another girl waiting in line so Sarah waited her turn.

Weaver looked around the stage and saw Mark heading to backroom. A tall man was following him.

"That doesn't look good." Weaver said.

Cameron zoomed in on the man following Mark and the man disappeared before she was able to complete her scan.

"I wasn't able to profile the man." Cameron said.

"I will go check it out. Stay here with John. I will be back in a little bit." Weaver told Cameron.

Weaver walked around slowly to the backroom entrance so she wouldn't stand out or get caught.

It was finally Sarah's turn to use the bathroom. She opened the door and threw the tracking device on the floor near the toilet. The toilet looked like it hasn't been cleaned in weeks so she decided she could hold off until she got home. She washed her hands and opened the door. She took one step out of the bathroom and a girl walked right up to her and swung something at her. Before Sarah could react, she was hit in the head. Sarah was knocked out cold on the floor.

The last of the two other men visiting Danny picked up their suitcases and shook Danny's hand. They walked out the door into the night of Orlando. Now it was just Cameron and John waiting around.

"This is taking too long. Something isn't adding up." John told Cameron. "Good Danny is coming over, let's tell him why we are here and get out of here."

"Hi, my name is Danny, and you must be the infamous John Connor" Danny said, looking not too happy that John was here.

"Yeah Danny, look it has been a long time, but you need to come with us, I think you might in some trouble. Come with us and we can explain everything on the way to our safe house." John told Danny.

"No John. I am fine. In fact I am glad you are here." Danny told John refusing to even look at Cameron.

The same tall man that went towards the back room was now walking up behind Danny.

"We need to go. Now." the tall muscular man told Danny.

"No. I order you to stay here. We are not leaving until I get my payback on John Connor." Danny drew a gun from his back belt loop and raised it to John.

Cameron quickly stepped in front of John to prevent any type of successful shot Danny could make against John.

"Move bitch. This doesn't involve you." Danny told Cameron.

"I cannot allow you to cause any physical harm to John Connor. Put the gun down now, or I force you to do so." Cameron systematically told Danny.

Danny ignored her advice and pulled the trigger. He didn't care. If she wanted to die too, then he would be happy to accommodate her. Cameron took the shot to chest, looking at the bullet that did nothing to her, and then focused on Danny. She grabbed his gun out of his hands and threw it away. Cameron was about to engage Danny when she saw the tall man about to grab at her to protect Danny. She grabbed his arm first and threw him into Danny knocking them both back into the chairs where the crowd was sitting. She calculated his weight and knew it was a machine.

"John, it is a terminator, run." Cameron pleaded John.

"Not so fast." A short slender good looking female with blonde hair walked out of the hallway dragging Sarah by the collar of her shirt on the ground.

"I think you should stay like Danny said or your mother dies." She commanded.

Danny rose to his feet along with the other terminator. John was outnumbered three to two. Danny was pissed and walked towards John again.

"Hold on Danny Dyson before you do anything stupid." Weaver said looking quite pissed off for liquid metal. "Call your woman off before I kill you where you stand." She formed her hand into a blade drawing in within Danny's striking range.

Danny motioned for the terminator to stop. "Wow the great John Connor, controls to two metal whores to do his dirty work. I am just so impressed. Call me Danny one more time and I will tell my girlfriend to kill your mother."

"Dan, stop for a minute. I don't understand. Why are you pissed off at me? I am here to tell you that Skynet is probably going to hunt you down and kill you because you are important in the future, just like I am. I came here to tell you to join us so together we can outsmart Skynet." John explained to Dan.

Dan started to laugh. "Skynet isn't my problem John, you are. In fact they sent me a protector, just like you had one years ago. This one is here to protect me from you so it claims. I wish my father had one before you killed him. Did you know my father and he took all the blame for the crime of blowing up Cyberdyne. As far as I am concerned, you should pay for my father's death. See John, you have Skynet all wrong. Only if you are opposed to the machines, they will kill you. Not when you are on their side. See John, unlike you I have no problem wiping out endless countries of people for the benefit of the world. The machines are almost perfect. With my help, John they will be."

Dan's girlfriend let go of Sarah and walked up to Dan and took his arm. She seemed overly proud of him and his speech. Sarah slowly woke up on the floor stood up and walked over to John quickly to protect her son over trying to figure out if she was hurt.

"I really don't know what this headache is really from. Getting hit in the head with a blunt object or listening to that bullshit speech you just said." Sarah commented. "Enough is enough for one day, let us go and we will give you a day to rethink your ideals behind mankind. Skynet is just using you Dan, wake up and realize after they don't need you anymore they will kill you just like everyone else."

"Let you go, don't make me laugh. You are out gunned and outnumbered." Dan snapped at Sarah.

"Last time I checked kid, I have a liquid metal terminator and an advanced terminator that can cook one hell of a breakfast. All you have is one terminator and a girlfriend that hits softer than a ten year old I know." Sarah said in a cheap-shot manner to Dan.

"Next time I won't hit you with a piece of wood that was left over from the stage, Ms. Connor. Instead I will just kill you." The girl hanging on Dan's arm said.

"What are you going to do, scratch me to death?" Sarah snapped at her slightly smug.

"Sure." The girl said, as she took a step away from Dan and closer to Sarah. "Do these claws work?" the girl slowly formed her four human fingers into silvery metallic cone like knives.


	22. Negotiations with a Machine

**Chapter 22: Negotiations with a Machine**

Cameron watched Dan's girlfriend reveal to everyone that she was the second liquid metal terminator in the room. Cameron kept her gaze on both terminators as she took one step backwards getting closer to John. She wanted to make sure there were not going to be any angles that the T-1000 could form a stabbing weapon and get a successful strike at John with it.

Sarah no longer had a smirk on her face after realizing that she overstepped her boundries provoking a T-1000. However knowing now what the young girl really was, Sarah was trying to look for an exit strategy without it looking obvious.

"Trying to look for a way to escape Sarah?" the liquid metal asked showing off her claws. "Try not to do anything rash because I would just have to kill you where you stand."

"If you make any illogical moves I can kill Dan right where he stands too. I wouldn't be so confident." Weaver looked at the other liquid metal.

"Melissa, I will handle this." Danny told the liquid metal, revealing its name. "How about this idea, just let me put a bullet into John Connor's head and everyone else can walk away and live to see another day." Dan requested.

"If anything were to happen to John Connor, I would risk my own life making sure you die the worse humanly way possible." Cameron scolded Dan.

"Oh look John, your whore machine gets mad if I threaten you. How pathetic." Dan told John.

"You know Dan; I am starting to change my mind about you. Fate is what you make it. If you want to go down this road, then so be it." John told Dan and focused his attention on the machine. "Terminator eight hundred series, model 101, what is your primary mission? John asked the machine.

The machine looked at John and responded to his query. "To ensure the survival of Danny Dyson until Skynet has won the war against the human race."

"I understand, but you are in danger of failing your mission. If Dan attacks us you have three people that would gun him down and kill him." John replied.

Sarah looked at John shocked that he was trying to manipulate a machine. Cameron watched as the machine took two steps closer to Dan blocking all easy assault attempts on Dan.

"How nice of you John to give a shit, let me show you how much I really care." Dan told John as he started to draw his gun at him. The machine protecting Dan grabbed Dan's wrist not allowing him to point the gun at John Connor.

"I order you to let me go, machine." Dan yelled.

"No. I cannot fail my mission. The counter attack from your pending action has a 92% chance that you would be killed in the crossfire. John Connor is correct." The machine explained to Dan.

"Melissa, kill them all." Dan told his girlfriend.

Not even Melissa moved in on John Connor. She as well didn't want to put Dan's life at stake.

Dan was getting furious that he wasn't getting his way. He tried again to order his two machines to attack, but no one in the room made a move. Suddenly, bright lights shined in the room. Cameron scanned that a vehicle was about to crash into the building. Everyone's focus now was on the lights. The truck slammed into the building and rammed into the terminator protecting Dan. The impact sent it flying back crashing through a wall into the other room. The passenger side door opened up.

Sonya was revealed to John that she was driving the truck and said. "Get in."

Melissa moved Dan out of the way to make sure he wasn't going to get hit. Sarah hopped in the back seat pulling John's arm almost out of his socket to get him into the truck with her. She noticed that they were not the only ones in the backseat. Mark was knocked out cold sitting there. Cameron pursued Melissa to buy John time to get in the truck. Cameron tried to push Melissa, but she was ready for her. Cameron received a backhand to the face for her efforts and felt four claws slice into her arm after Melissa's second attack. Weaver walked up to Melissa as she was attacking Cameron. Since Mellissa was only focusing on Cameron, Weaver was able to grab Melissa and shove her into the same wall as the first terminator was launched into. Cameron rushed to the truck and got in the backseat with John and Sarah. Weaver jumped in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. Sonya threw the truck in reverse and floored the gas pedal. The tires screeched on the floor and smoke and burnt rubber filled the building as the truck escaped.

Danny walked into clear site of the truck watching in contempt as it drove away. His two guardian machines walked up to his side and didn't pursue the Connors in the truck. John breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cam, are you okay?" John asked looking at her bleeding arm.

"Yes, you are alive, so I am fine." Cameron told John.

"You had perfect timing Sonya; I don't think I could have taken anymore of Dan's talking. Thank you." John told the driver of the truck.

"You either?" Mark said moaning while holding his head. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. My name is Mark. I used to work with Dan all the time. I would shake your hand, but my head hurts."

"I heard a lot about you Mark, my name is John Connor, this lady beside me is Cameron. My mom is sitting next to you, her name is Sarah. In the front passenger seat is Ms. Weaver. Sonya is driving the truck. How about you my friend, are you going to be alright? John kindly asked.

Cameron scanned Mark for injuries, her HUD revealed a few injuries. "He has a minor concussion and some cuts on his head. He will be fine." Cameron spoke before Mark could answer John's question.

"Right, what she said." Mark said a little confused on how she would know just looking at her. Mark saw her cuts and how she didn't really look to be in pain. "Well John, assuming my life was just peachy until tonight, then I was attacked and now I am in a truck with you and my girlfriend Sonya, I should go ahead and assume to thank you for saving my life. I guess I only have two questions. How do you know Sonya? My second question is more of a statement I guess. Cameron is bleeding and it really doesn't look like you care."

Cameron grabbed her arm acknowledging it was bleeding. She rested her hand on it, not really having anything to cover it up since she was in a dress.

"Well Mark, Cameron is a military girl and had a lot of brothers growing up. She's a real trooper." John laughed trying to avoid the issue. "We knew Sonya back in the day. She helped us out with some supplies from time to time.

"Fair enough," Mark replied. "Can we grab something to eat? I'm hungry and need to take a butt load of Advil."

Sonya looked in the rear view mirror and no one was following them. She pulled into a fast food drive through lane and rolled the window down for Mark to order. Mark placed his order and asked everyone else if they wanted anything. The truck stayed silent so Mark told the drive through window that his order was complete. Sonya paid for the food and handed it to Mark. They drove away and Weaver told Sonya the directions to get back to the house. Mark ate his sandwich but looked uncomfortable.

"So you are Sonya, I heard a lot about you. What is your role in this?" Sarah asked.

Sonya lifted her eyes from the road to the rearview mirror looking at Sarah. She didn't say anything.

"She is a strong silent type. Almost makes the perfect girlfriend." Mark laughed at his own joke. Sarah stopped him by hitting him on the arm.

"Be nice." Sarah said.

"Perhaps we can all sort this out when we get home. For now I think silence might be the best action. I need to do some thinking on what happened tonight." Weaver explained to everyone in the truck.

Ten minutes later, the truck drove into the driveway at the house. Weaver got out first and moved the seat so everyone in the back seat could get out. Weaver didn't say much after that and walked into the house. They all entered the house and no one really said much. Weaver went to go check on Ellison and Savannah. Cameron walked upstairs to go change and cover up her injuries. Mark and John walked to the sofa and turned the television on. Sonya sat in the chair next to them. Sarah stood in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. She was nervous over what happened tonight. She knew that this wasn't just a war where they had to stop one machine. This might be the war itself being fought in this time, only before the nuclear war. Being nervous she went to go talk to Weaver about everything she was thinking.

"Hey Mark, I am going to go check on Cameron. I'll let you and Sonya chill and watch some television. I shouldn't be too long." John told Mark.

"That's cool man." Mark said half paying attention to what John just said and watching some nature channel on the television.

John walked up the stairs to see if Cameron was alright. Cameron was in the bathroom with the door shut.

"You alright Cam?" John asked.

"Yeah, I am fine, you can come in John. I just finished changing." Cameron said on the other side of the door.

John opened the door to see Cameron in a tank top and shorts looking like she was ready for bed. She was looking at her cuts on her arm and was checking for any damage.

John walked up to her and helped her bandage her cuts on her arm.

"Thanks for saving my life again tonight." John said. "It is starting to be a daily thing for you almost." John said with a slight smile on his face.

"It is my job." Cameron replied. "Is it true what Mark said? The part about the perfect girlfriend doesn't talk much?"

John let out a few laughs before he could contain himself. "No Cam, he was just joking around. Mark is a sarcastic kind of guy. Sometimes couples will pick on each other in a playful manner. Love and relationships are a complicated thing. I don't think humans even really totally understand it. He didn't mean anything hurtful; it was just a teasing banter between a couple. Sometimes friends will add to it too. Besides, I like my girls strong and willing to communicate with me. Ones that take bullets for me are pretty darn special too" John tried to explain the best way he could for Cameron and to maybe get a smile.

"Oh I guess I understand." Cameron said to John but her face still looked like she was a little lost. She did smile that John did flirt with her. Her eyes gave it away for John.

John didn't know why, but he leaned in and gave Cameron a hug. Cameron was more than happy to hug John back but heard Mark coming up the stairs.

"I hope I am not interrupting anything. I was just going to ask where I was supposed to sleep tonight. I am beat and was going to go to bed." Mark asked John.

"Yeah its fine, you and Sonya can take the sofa. I am not too tired and want to do some research on the computer tonight." John replied.

"You need your rest John. It is important." Cameron told John.

Mark started laughing. "I can already see who the alpha in this relationship is!"

"See Cam, that's a prime example." John said.

Cameron sort of smiled as she cocked her head a little trying to figure everything out.

"I am off to bed." Mark said. "What's the game plan tomorrow?"

"We have to figure out how to get the prototype glasses back from Dan. He knows how to make that chip and I don't like the thought of him doing whatever he wants with it. We have to find him and destroy the glasses. We also have to stop him from making the chips in mass production if he tried to complete orders for people." John explained to Cameron and Mark.

"Well, about that chip." Mark said, looking like he had important information to reveal.


	23. A Metal Shoulder to Lean On

**Chapter 23: A Metal Shoulder to Lean On**

Sarah sat on a chair staring at Weaver. After she voiced all of her concerns, it seemed that Weaver didn't really care too much.

"Did you hear anything I just said?" Sarah questioned Weaver

"Yes, Ms. Connor. I think you are reading too much into this. It is war; nothing will be easy for your son. That is why he has powerful allies." Weaver replied back to Sarah as she was searching for something in the room.

"This is different. This isn't just a metal tin can walking around. It is a T-1000, just like you. Have you ever tried to kill one of them before? "Sarah asked.

"No. I have not. In my database, none of our kind has been killed since the prototype that was sent after you. However we are much more upgraded since then." Weaver answered Sarah.

"Great. That's just great." Sarah said looking pissed off.

Weaver finally found what she was looking for, a bedtime story book for Savannah for tomorrow night. "Go get some rest Ms. Connor. Your anger isn't going to solve anything tonight."

Sarah stormed out of the room and out of the house.

"I just heard the door open and close. I am going to check it out." Cameron told John and marched downstairs to see what was going on. Cameron opened the door and scanned the outside area. No threats in the area her HUD told her. Cameron took a few more steps and saw Sarah sitting in the damp grass with her head resting on her knees.

"Sarah, are you okay?" Cameron asked.

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone." Sarah told Cameron getting up turning her back on her.

Cameron could tell by the tone in her voice that something was wrong. Her voice cracked too much. Without looking at her face, Cameron deemed that she was crying or in pain. "Okay." Cameron calmly replied taking a few steps backwards towards the house.

"We are too late, aren't we?" Sarah whimpered.

"How are we late?" Cameron asked wondering what Sarah was getting at.

"They have the new computer chip; Skynet will completely over run us. They have a T-1000 and a T-888." Sarah said.

"Yes, Dan and Skynet are more protected that I thought. But John has Ms. Weaver, John Henry, Ellison, me, and don't count yourself out either." Cameron said.

"Can you stop a T-1000?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know. I do not have any detailed files about them other than Ms. Weaver, but nothing about combat strategies against them." Cameron replied.

"Now you know why I am scared." Sarah explained.

"Yes, I can see that. I promise you Sarah, as long as this body still functions, I will protect your son. I would die for John." Cameron told Sarah.

Sarah walked up to Cameron, without saying anything she hugged her.

"Remember, your son needs you too. He needs you to be strong mentally. He is not the John of the future yet, but after showing me how he manipulated that terminator tonight, he is progressing greatly." Cameron explained to Sarah patting her on the back trying to give her reassurance.

"Thank you Cameron. I really mean it. Thank you. But if you tell my son about my miniature meltdown in the lawn tonight, I will still disassemble you piece by piece." Sarah told Cameron, regaining her mental toughness and style of humor. "I am going to go to bed. It has been a long night."

"Good night Sarah." Cameron said. "I will be in shortly; I am going to walk around the house before I go in for the night."

Back inside the house Mark and John went down to the kitchen to grab a coke and talk about the chip.

"So this chip, you are right to say it is a prototype." Mark told John as he cracked open the can of Coke. "In fact it really isn't even complete."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Well Dan and I spent probably the last year of our lives working on this thing. He had old files that his dad secretly had backed up. It was more advanced lines of code and structuring of a chip I have ever seen in my life. Hell, I had to swear I would never tell anyone. It was like he was completely paranoid about it." Mark started to explain.

"How did you even know Dan in the first place?" John questioned Mark.

"Well we actually had a computer programming course together in college. John and I had the top scores almost every project. He was pretty smart. For the final project he made this amazing software that could read an iris signature and compare it to hundreds of students and bring up information. My project was more of the targeting software you saw tonight. Nothing near that advanced but it could shoot a paintball gun at a stationary target. It couldn't hit anything moving though to save its life. After the course was over, he ran into me and told me that he wanted to team up to make programs for some advanced processor. He showed me this new processor that he had. It was beautiful. It was nothing that you could ever buy on the market. He told me it was top secret from his dad's company but we could play around with it. Since I really didn't have a girlfriend at the time and I was a computer super nerd, I agreed." Mark explained to John taking a swig of his Coke.

"Wow, well whatever you did, it looked like it worked pretty well." John smirked.

"This chip, John, was crazy fast. I would guess to say it was more of a computer cluster than anything. I wasn't really able to study it because Dan always had it locked away and hidden. His information that his dad had tucked away was a bunch of compression schemes and other various lines of codes. It was pretty sweet. The programs I wrote could be shrunk down to about ten percent of its original size. The random software I made was slow on the best laptops we had, but ran with ease on the CPU Dan had. After a while, the laptop I used couldn't even run the program, it had to be ran on Dan's CPU. That's what took forever, but in the end it paid off." Mark told John.

"Did you guys program it for anything else?" John asked

"I really don't know. I was just working on my targeting software. We were rushed for time to meet Dan's deadline. As far as what Dan worked on, I couldn't tell you. I thought he wasn't going to have anything working considering how much time he spent with his girlfriend, Melissa. Somehow he was able to do it." Mark continued to tell John.

"Well we are all human; we need hobbies and a social life from time to time." John told Mark as Cameron walked in the door and joined them in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I know I blew off a couple of nights of programming a week to hang out with Sonya." Mark smiled telling John.

"That's cool." Cameron said. "How did you two meet?"

"It is funny actually. I was going to the movie theater to watch a movie and she asked if the seat was free. I told her no and she sat down. The rest sort of just clicked. I knew she was a keeper since after the movie we, well mostly I talked about cool computer programming things. She didn't go running off scared and well, here we are today." Mark smiled at Cameron. "What about you two?"

"That's a long story." John said with a slightly long face. He was slightly jealous of Mark's situation.

"Fair enough." Mark said.

"How is your head?" Cameron asked Mark.

"It will be fine. I'll just sleep it off." Mark chuckled to himself. "I think I am just more in shock after what happened tonight."

John treaded lightly not really knowing how much Mark knew about terminators or anything else of that nature. "What do you mean?" John asked.

"Well after we completed the prototype, Dan told me that he wanted his girlfriend to be his partner since she was a programmer as well. I really didn't think she was that good, but whatever. After I heard that I was being told to get lost, I was pretty pissed about it. In fact, I sort of laugh now because I was so pissed I forgot that the targeting software would only work with that paintball gun and not actual weapons. It would need a whole new set of codes for that. Dan told me if I just walked away after tonight's showing and didn't reproduce my code he would give me a hundred thousand dollars. Considering he really had the chip to run the software, I really didn't have a choice. After we were done with the demonstration, I walked towards the back to get my money and leave. I just know that I was waiting around then I was attacked. Before passing out I saw this one big guy throwing someone through a wall like it was nothing. I thought I was dead, and then the next thing I know I am in Sonya's truck." Mark explained to John and Cameron scratching his head. "Not to sound pushy, but I have a feeling you two know what is going on. So now that you know what happened with me, I have this gut feeling like I am in some kind of shit here. Who wants to tell me?" Mark asked sort of nervous.

"Do you want the short or long version?" John asked.

Mark laughed. "Let's go with the short hand version. It is like two in the morning after all."

"Basically Mark, in the future the machines start a nuclear war with a goal to end mankind. Humanity fights back and I am their leader, John Connor. The machines build solders called terminators that look like humans. Think of them as armored human skeletons controlled by advanced processors, probably like the one you were working with. They get more advanced as time goes and add real human tissue to them making them better killers. Lucky for us we are able to reprogram a handful to help protect us. Think of this as a giant chess match between man and machine and winner takes all."

"Basically what I just heard was deep shit." Mark replied. "So you have some of these super machines or terminators here now, or are they only in the future?"

"No, they are also here in this time too, sent back from the future actually." John said. Cameron looked at John looking for permission to help drive the point home for Mark. John looked at her and nodded his head.

"We can explain everything more in the morning, but just know that you are in danger now. Dan knowing that you are alive and with us, he will probably try and kill you. The only safe place for you now is to stay with us." Cameron said forcing her eyes to glow bright blue for Mark to see.

"Really deep shit. Got it." Mark replied sort of curious seeing Cameron was a machine. "Well I'm going to bed." Mark walked over to the sofa and laid down with Sonya who looked like she was asleep the whole time.

John grabbed his soda and headed outside for some fresh air. Cameron looked at him wondering if he was okay and headed outside too. John was sitting on the stairs looking off into the distance slowly drinking his Coke.

Sarah heard the door open again and saw John go outside. She was about to go down with him, but saw Cameron go outside to keep him company. He wasn't going anywhere, so Sarah didn't see the need to go downstairs. Sarah being concerned carefully cracked open the window so she could hear what maybe her son doesn't tell her.

"Can I join you?" Cameron asked John.

"Sure." John replied.

Cameron sat next to John watching him look out into the darkness of Orlando.

"John, are you okay? It is almost three in the morning and you are wide awake when you should be tired." Cameron questioned John. She ran her hand on John's arm and his vitals were fine. Blood pressure was high, but that was to be expected after tonight.

"I just wasn't prepared for tonight. That's all. I thought it was going to be Dan joining us; and we could beat Skynet to the punch. On top of that, I ruined Mark's life by bringing him into this mess. He won't have a normal life anymore." John replied.

"You didn't ruin his life, you saved his life. As far as tonight, not even I calculated that would ever happen." Cameron told John. "Besides what's to say you can't have a normal life. What defines normal to you?"

"What is normal? Maybe going to a theme park as a family, not looking over our backs for machines that want to kill me every moment, going out to just grab a beer with friends, not worrying about stopping Skynet before it ends the world as we know it, or even fathom having a normal relationship with a girl. I used to see it all the time in school and it sucked not being able to pursue a relationship. I heard all about the movies, couples talk about fancy dates and the scary moments of kissing the girl goodnight, or even staying out late and act like a normal teenager for once. I saw a glimpse of that with Riley, but after I figured out she was from the future and was just trying to separate me from you, that kind of killed it." John explained to Cameron sort of hanging his head low. He looked tired and stressed.

"You are right about some of those things John. It is your fate and you can't change that. But some of those things you can have." Cameron said looking at John and smiling.

"I guess so, but I don't really think I am going to catch a lucky break and have a girl ask me about computer chips let alone go to a movie by myself." John chuckled a little bit thinking of Mark's situation. "Grant, I guess Sonya doesn't count."

John grabbed his empty can of Coke and headed back for the front door. He grabbed the door handle and stared at it for a while. "Maybe normal is overrated. Maybe I should just tell myself that." John said out loud trying to convince himself of what he just said.

Cameron got up and positioned herself between John and keeping him from opening the door. "Maybe it's not. Maybe you shouldn't." Cameron said slowly wrapping her arms around John to give him a hug.

"Maybe you are right. Maybe someday in the future I can." John told Cameron giving her a hug and resting his head on top of hers.

"I care about you John, promise me that you know that I am here for you, that we are here for you." Cameron whispered to John moving her head up looking into John's tired eyes.

The night was quiet as Orlando could be. It was completely peaceful out. John looked into her eyes and felt at ease but at the same time thought about her as a girl, not only as just a girl, but the perfect girl, not a guardian. John's head filled with feelings for her and his hands were getting slightly sweaty. John instinctively moved slowly closer to Cameron. She didn't resist John; in fact she helped close the gap between them.

"I care about you too." John whispered back returning the curious gaze into Cameron's eyes. John felt his heart race and nervously closed the distance between their lips. He closed his eyes and kissed Cameron for the first time under the starlit sky of Orlando.


	24. Gentlemen Never Kiss and Tell

**Chapter 24: Gentlemen Never Kiss and Tell**

Sunlight broke through Sarah's window and after a very short night of sleep, it was time to get up and start the day. She resisted and rolled over but soon the room was too bright to sleep. Sarah got up and took a shower and headed downstairs. During her shower she was remembering everything that her son was telling Cameron late last night. She didn't see anything, but she heard enough that she could put two and two together. Walking down the stairs she saw her son passed out in the recliner while Sonya and Mark were on the pull out sofa. She looked around but Cameron didn't seem to be in the house. Sarah tip toed across the room letting her son sleep in a little bit more. She opened the door and there was Cameron coming towards the house on the sidewalk with a gallon of milk and bagels.

"Wow, you got us breakfast?" Sarah asked Cameron.

"Yes, it isn't much, but since it is a late breakfast I figured it would be fine." Cameron told Sarah.

"No, it's perfect. Thanks." Sarah replied wondering why she was being so nice. She knew she was a machine, but still it almost looked like she was hiding something or was guilty of something. "Cameron, I heard everything last night. I heard my son spill his heart out to you."

Cameron stopped and looked at Sarah. She really didn't know what to say.

"I'm not mad. I did it too. I spilled my heart out to you too." Sarah reiterated.

"I know. Like I said Sarah, as long as I am still alive, I will always be there for John. The same applies to you as long as you don't dismantle me." Cameron smiled as she walked in the house relieved that Sarah must not have seen her son kissing her last night on the doorstep. She knew Sarah wouldn't be so happy about that.

Sarah cracked her own smile as she walked in the house and shut the door. The noise from shutting the door was enough to wake John up followed by Mark and Sonya.

"Good Morning mom, what is for breakfast?" John asked half awake and half asleep.

"We got bagels and milk." Cameron replied.

"Nice!" Mark said as he grabbed a bagel and poured a glass of milk. "So last night, everything was true, right? I didn't drink too much and make this all up in my head?"

"Unfortunately, every bit of what I told you is true, Mark." John answered him.

"Drink you milk and bagel Mark, it is best not to try and understand everything so quickly." Sarah instructed Mark. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. My name is Sarah. You will learn more as you hang around us. I don't want you to run out scared. For now, just enjoy your breakfast."

Weaver walked into the room and saw everyone eating breakfast.

"Good Morning everyone, I trust that we are ready to start the day off right and get to work?" Weaver asked the group.

"I suppose work doesn't involve me playing around with a laptop and sleeping to some television does it?" Mark asked eating his bagel.

"No. Today we are all going to help John Henry with the basement of Windrunner Corporation. We can leave here in about an hour." Weaver said getting a bagel.

"So, not to sound rude, but obviously you're a machine with the blue eyes trick, also known as Cameron. Are you the only one?" Mark asked.

"No, there are two terminators in this room right now actually." Cameron replied taking a small bite of John's bagel that he gave her.

"Oh wow, so Sarah does you eyes glow blue like Cameron's or are the machines creative in the future?" Mark innocently asked.

John spit out half of the milk in his mouth on the counter and started laughing. He tried to contain it but there was no way he could. Cameron tried to keep a straight face, but even she couldn't stop her smile from showing. Sarah stood in silence.

"Actually, I am the other terminator in this house, but Cameron and I are different models. She is a hyper alloy combat chassis covered by real living tissue. I on the other hand am all liquid metal. I can change forms at will." Weaver said breaking the awkward silence Mark just created. "Here I will show you want I mean." She formed her hand into a knife and cut the bagel perfectly down the middle. The knife then formed right back into her normal looking hand.

"No shit? So John, can I borrow a shovel? It seems I have dug myself into a hole this morning." Mark replied trying to joke his way out of the situation with Sarah. "By the way, that is cool as hell with the whole hand to knife trick."

Sonya sat in silence and slapped Mark on the arm for his comment.

"So all of this doesn't make you want to run for the hills?" John asked Mark cleaning up the spilt milk and avoiding his mother's look of death for laughing at her being called a machine.

"Actually, it does a little bit. Well, okay yeah a lot. But at the same time I want to learn more about it. That and you said if I leave I am as good as dead. So really, do I have a choice other than to like it?" Mark told John. "So, Sarah, about calling you a terminator. Sorry about that. Can I just chalk that one up on my concussion?" Mark nervously laughed.

"Yeah I will let it slide this time." Sarah smiled at Mark, trying to be nice. "Well everyone go ahead and finish up breakfast and put your dishes in the dishwasher. We need to head out."

Sarah left to go get Savannah and Ellison ready since they missed breakfast. Weaver looked at John and asked, "Do you remember how to get back to the office John?"

"Yeah I remember how, why?" John wondered.

"We have two vehicles and I was going to get you four to go now, and the rest of us can use the other vehicle. Also I wanted to pick up some security equipment along the way and there is no sense in all of us doing that. "Weaver explained.

"That's fine with me." John replied. "Guess we will head out then." John got up and the other three followed him to the door. "Mom we are taking one car over now, see you in a little while."

Sarah came back into the room. "Yeah that's fine. I will see in you a few minutes. No detours John. I know you too well." Sarah told her son with caution. She knew Cameron would protect them, but it was still her motherly instinct kicking in.

"Can I drive John? I always wanted to drive this type of truck!" Mark practically begged John.

"Sure." John answered him and handed him the keys. John and Cameron sat in the back and Mark and Sonya got in the front. The truck was practically boiling inside so they rolled down the windows, turned up the music, and took off to the office.

The drive was relaxing and peaceful for John. Mark was talking about the glasses a little more but it was nothing new, then he talked about some other stuff he has seen and made with computer programming. Nothing of what Mark was talking about really struck John as important, but it was nice that he was willing to share so much. As Mark continued to talk now about more off topic things, Sonya reached over the middle console and grabbed Mark's hand that was sitting on the arm rest.

Cameron didn't say much since she was in the house. She glanced over at John, but he was sitting with his arms crossed half asleep. Cameron studied what Sonya did to hold Mark's hand. It looked like Mark was happy when she held his hand at random. She wondered what John thought about it, but didn't know how John would react if she tried something like what Sonya did. Cameron looked back and saw John's hand lying between them. She decided to mimic what Sonya did and slowly laid her hand in John's. She didn't know what to do or think, but was quickly relieved when John softly squeezed her hand in an acceptance type of response.

Back at the house, Sarah was carrying Savannah out the door and jumped in the back seat of the car. Ellison was driving and Weaver was in the passenger seat.

"So where are we going?" Sarah asked.

"I am going to take us to a security supply store. We need to pick up some cameras and other types of things for the new office." Ellison spoke in a low deep voice.

The drive to the store was a headache for Sarah. Weaver was talking nonstop about security strategies and building schematics with Ellison. By the sound of it, she was going to have Ellison stay full time at the office soon to be the chief of security and also resume training John Henry on ethics and morals in the night time. Ellison seemed happy to agree, overly happy Sarah thought. As they pulled into the store's parking lot, Sarah volunteered to stay in the car and hang out with Savannah. Ellison and Weaver headed off into the store.

Savannah was occupied trying to read her books. She seemed stuck on a page so Sarah leaned over to her.

"Mind if I help you out?" Sarah smiled at Savannah.

"Sure!" Savannah said in her common high energy child like voice. She handed her book over to Sarah.

"My Savannah, this is quite the book to read. John didn't read this book until he was three years older than you. You must be pretty smart." Sarah explained to the little girl.

"My mommy makes me read a lot. She said it will keep me out of trouble and I will be really super smart!" Savannah told Sarah. "If I am good she lets me play board games at night with John Henry. But, I think he always lets me beat him." She continued.

"What board game is your favorite?" Sarah asked.

"Monopoly! I want to be like my mom when I grow up and own lots of houses and businesses!" Savannah giggled out at Sarah.

Sarah smiled at the young girl's innocence knowing that her mother was probably dead and her new mom is a liquid metal terminator. She didn't want to begin to know how to break that information to her one day so she started reading the book out loud to her.

Savannah sat there contently as Sarah read. The parking lot was rather empty in the morning for the store, so when a truck pulled in, Sarah quickly noticed. She stopped reading for a little bit until she saw that the driver was a young skinny man with his friend. Sarah figured that if that was a terminator, she could probably win the battle since he was like a toothpick. She continued reading when her phone began to ring. It was John.

Sarah answered her phone rather quickly.

"John is everything okay?" Sarah blurted out. She noticed another truck pull into the parking lot, but was too focused on her son's phone call.

"Yes mom, relax. I just wanted to tell you that we got to the office and we are headed to the basement, but none of us get signal down here for some reason. So before I go down, I figured I better tell you before half of Orlando's police pull you over for speeding tickets trying to get here too fast."

"Thanks for telling me, and for the record it would have been all of Orlando's police." Sarah laughed into the phone appreciating that her son told her this information.

As Sarah hung up the phone with John, she saw Weaver and Ellison come out of the store with quite a few shopping bags.

"Wow, you think you bought enough?" Sarah asked.

"We'll see." Ellison said.

Ellison started the car and pulled out of the parking lot to head towards the office. The driver of the second truck started the engine and carefully started to follow them.


	25. Home Security

**Chapter 25: Home Security**

Sarah was bored in the back seat of the car. She opened some of the shopping bags that Ellison and Weaver purchased at the store. They were full of security cameras, wires, and various mounting brackets. Sarah gave up trying to figure out what all of it was for so she returned her focus on Savannah and watched her read in the car. She ended up reading a chapter for her and Weaver looked behind her and smiled that Sarah made the attempt to bond with the little girl. They finally arrived at the office and Sarah grabbed the bags and got out of the car. Savannah was busy looking at her book but eventually got out of the car. Ellison grabbed the rest of the bags and they all went inside.

The truck that was following them pulled into a parking lot across the road and turned off the engine. The driver seemed content just watching for now.

The main floor looked good. Sarah smiled to herself noticing that the paint job definitely looked like the work of her son. Just like his chores as a kid, John's work looked rushed, but effective. The floor looked like it needed to be re-tiled and it was still bare inside, but it had a lot of potential to be a good office she thought.

Sarah went downstairs to see her son and Cameron helping John Henry bolt a wooden frame into a cement floor and ceiling. John clearly didn't look like he was into it much, so it looked like he was trying to act as a supervisor and help with the measurements.

"Hello Ms. Connor. How are you today?" John Henry asked

"I am fine John Henry. What are you building down here?" Sarah asked

"We are putting up frame work down in the basement. I am hoping to add drywall today too. However at our current rate, I don't think I will get to that until tomorrow." John Henry eagerly replied.

"That is good news John Henry. Where did you get the floor plans and measurements from?" Weaver asked him.

"Interestingly enough Ms. Weaver, I got this idea on a home improvement show. I plan on making this half of the basement all personal rooms, this quarter that we are building now will be a work center for me so I can monitor all police activity and the Internet. The last quarter of the basement will be a recreation area with a television, card table, and a sofa. I haven't figured out how I want do to the first and second floor yet Ms. Weaver. I thought maybe I could ask you for help since you ran your last business quite profitably." John Henry explained to the group.

"Wait, so we are all going to live in a basement?" Sarah asked almost annoyed that she would be so close to metal all the time if that was the case.

"Yes Ms. Connor. It is best that we are not in two different areas of the town in case we run into danger." Weaver told Sarah. "Besides if it makes you feel any better, I will always be upstairs doing work for the company. The basement is rather large; I don't think you will feel cramped."

"Mr. Ellison and Mark, do you think you could start surveying the building on where to place the security cameras? Make sure you have two of them outside the only door to the basement. One on each side of the wall, then where ever else you think we should have them." John Henry explained.

"Awesome!" Mark said looking at all the security cameras in the bag. "Wow these are pretty advanced! Wireless too? Dude, this is awesome!" He walked up the stairs carrying three cameras. "So who is going to run all the power for these? Do they have battery backup?"

"Actually they do have a three hour battery backup, but I will be installing a backup generator as well, so that would not matter too much. I plan on running the power after I finish the framework and drywall. I plan to have this basement done in about a week." John Henry explained.

"A week is pretty fast, I would be tired and get lazy" Mark said.

"Well, Mark I really don't sleep and have no use of resting, so I guess that helps my timetables being a terminator over you being a human." John Henry replied.

"John Henry, after you get done with the basement, do you think I could ask you about how your endoskeleton works and its functionality?" Mark asked

"Yes, that would be fine Mark. In fact I have complete detailed files on my model series and also Cameron's model series I could give you. However that information is about five terabytes." John Henry replied.

"Sweet, I really want to study the models for strengths and weakness to help John against Dan. I have a feeling the more we all know the better. Thanks John Henry."

"No problem Mark." John Henry replied.

"So what kind of security do we have against people that will try to come in the basement?" Sarah asked.

"I will be installing a special type of door. It will be a biometric iris scanner. We will have to set up profiles later." John Henry told Sarah.

"That's cool John Henry, but how will that work on Ms. Weaver?" John asked breaking his silence after getting something to drink.

"I will leave an eighth of an inch between the door and the floor." John Henry said.

"Nice." John said knowing that Weaver will just liquidate herself to get in and out of the room.

"John, why don't you and Cameron take some of this trash out to the dumpster and take a small break, I will help John Henry hold up the wooden frame so he can bolt it down." Sarah asked her son.

Cameron picked up the heavy debris and John picked up three bags full of trash to take outside. On the way up, they ran into Ellison and Mark. Ellison looked like he was trying to visualize the best points in the building for a security camera, where Mark was too focused on playing with the camera.

Mark opened the door for Cameron and she walked outside and heaved the heavy debris into the garbage bin. John did the same but when he threw his in the trash something in the bag stabbed his finger.

"Ouch." John said grimacing in pain.

Cameron grabbed his hand and looked at his finger. "Don't move." She commanded as she swiftly pulled a wooden splinter out of John's finger leaving a pin drop of blood on the finger. "John, with this new injury you just obtained, will we be able to hold hands anytime soon?" Cameron asked with a smile on her face.

"I don't know. It is a pretty brutal injury." John replied grabbing her hand and pulling her close to him.

"Oh really?" Cameron questioned John leaning into him.

"Yeah, I will just have to toughen up to be that battle hardened super soldier." John whispered at her then slowly started kissing her.

Their moment was short lived as Mark walked outside to throw some boxes away. Mark caught them and tried to keep quiet but Cameron saw him and pulled away from John. John turned a slighter shade a pale, only to be relieved that it was Mark and not his mother.

Mark broke down into laughter.

"John and Cameron sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a Connor in a baby carriage!"Mark sung at them throwing away the boxes

"Shut up Mark." John said slightly embarrassed that he was caught.

Mark tried to keep a straight face but failed to do so, he was too busy laughing at his joke. "Oh no really, it is adorable. It really is. I mean the way the future of mankind is blushing and Cameron's eyes glowing blue. It is quite colorful!" Mark resumed laughing again at his own jokes. He laughed so hard tears formed up in his eyes.

The door opened again and Sarah walked outside with a bag of trash. She stopped in her tracks trying to figure out what was so funny. "Did you two get lost, and what is so funny?" Sarah asked.

"Well Sarah," Mark said trying to collect himself. "It really is quite classic."

John looked at Mark worried that he was going to tell it all. He had no idea how his mom would react and it was just now starting to get peaceful around Cameron, his mom, and himself.

"You see Sarah, John throws a bag of trash away and got a small cut on his finger and freaks out. He tells Cameron to hurry up and look at his finger to make sure it's okay. The man acts like a school girl to a paper cut, and yet he isn't phased if a metric ton terminator is about to rip his head off with a machine gun. Now that is pure golden comedy to me." Mark explained laughing more at the truth rather than his lie he just told.

Sarah rolled her eyes at John. "Yeah that sounds about right with John. Heaven forbid if the machines figure out how to make him sing like a canary. Just give him a paper cut and humanity is doomed." She told Mark and smiled at John trying to give him a hard time. "I hope this major injury won't keep you from being able to work some more today."

"Very funny mom," John told his mom. They all took a break outside to laugh at John about his minor injury.

Still undiscovered by anyone, the driver of the truck that followed Ellison's car was still watching. The driver was still like a statue behind the wheel observing the situation. He reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed his pistol and shotgun. The driver checked to make sure the weapons were loaded and refocused at the main door of the office as Weaver and Ellison stepped outside.

The driver's HUD suddenly popped up. Target Identification complete: John Connor, Sarah Connor, unknown machine, T-1000, and two other unknown humans. The machine sat and waited knowing that going into action now; it would fail its mission.

Weaver walked up to Sarah and made her announcement. "Mr. Ellison and I are going to purchase some more computer equipment for John Henry. We will be back late tonight. Please continue to work here until we get back. The faster we get everything set up here, the faster we can research and find Dan Dyson." She explained.

"Oh Ms. Weaver, if you don't mind. Could you buy me a laptop so I can do some work in my room? I feel naked without a laptop. Plus I was going to see if I could work on some other coding. " Mark asked figuring it was a long shot that she would buy him a laptop.

"Yes, that is fine. Anything else?" Weaver asked.

"Oh, John Henry said I needed a five terabyte hard drive. But that is it." Mark said.

Weaver got in the car and Ellison and her drove off to go computer shopping.

"Mark, where is Sonya?" John asked. "I'm starving!"

"I'll give her a call in a minute, John. Should I ask her to pick up a 'hello kitty' band aid too?" Mark joked at John.

John laughed at gave Mark a look like he was going to get him back sometime.

"Man, it is hot outside, let's go back in and get back to work." Sarah said getting the group back on track.

They walked back inside the office while the machine in the truck across the road exited his truck. He checked his pistol again making sure it was loaded and tucked it away in the waistband of his pants. He grabbed the shotgun and pumped it. His HUD rescanned the scene. Target Identification complete: John Connor, Sarah Connor, unknown machine, unknown human. 'Engage' flashed before him.

He shut the truck door and walked across the street with the shotgun at his side heading to the office of Windrunner Corporation.


	26. There is No I in Team

**Chapter 26: There is No I in Team**

The terminator walked around the outside of the building of Windrunner Corporation. After checking for all possible exits from the building, it walked up to the main door and opened it. The door was unlocked and the machine was now inside the building. He started to scan the inside for possible activity and threats. Its HUD showed that no one was on the first floor. The machine started to look around where they could have went.

"Sweet, I think I heard someone come in the door. That must be Sonya. Finally, it is time to eat!" John excitedly said.

"Oh no way John, I am totally getting my sandwich first. That's my perk of her being my girlfriend!" Mark countered John.

"Cameron, keep these boys in line before they jump the poor girl." Sarah told Cameron who was bolting down the wooden frame.

"John can you help me real quick by holding this frame up for a minute before you get your sandwich?" Cameron nicely asked John.

"I suppose I can do that, but if the leader of mankind dies from hunger, this is completely on your conscience Cameron." John said smiling at her holding the wooden frame up.

"That's so cute John, your girlfriend has you completely under her thumb. I am going to see Sonya and get my sandwich. I'll let you know how awesome it tastes." Mark teased John.

"Let's stay focused on why we are here." Sarah interrupted Mark.

Mark walked up the stairs and opened the door. He shut the door quietly and dashed down stairs. "Guys, we got a problem."

Sarah stopped what she was doing and walked up to Mark, looking at the paleness up his face, it was something big. "What is it?"

"Well, the bad news is that my girlfriend isn't back yet. The really bad news is that it looks like some motorcycle dude in a leather jacket with shades on is in the lobby. I am pretty sure he has a gun too. I don't think he looks like a customer either." Mark explained.

Cameron hearing Mark description of the person in the lobby dropped everything of what she was doing and walked to the door. It sounded like the same description of the terminator she battled in the mall parking lot. She drew her pistol from her waistband. "I will buy you time by distracting him. Sarah, get Savannah and get everyone out of here. Mark and John, go with Sarah. Get to the parking lot and get the truck. Retreat back to the house. Once you are safe, call Weaver and let her know what is going on. I will be fine until then."

"No, I will stay and help you fight him. I can help you." John told Cameron.

"No, this is too dangerous for you John. You can't take bullets. I can." Cameron demanded.

Cameron didn't wait for John to ration with her; instead she walked up the stairs and towards the hostile character in the lobby.

"Get out." Cameron told the leather jacketed man.

The terminator scanned Cameron but was unable to identify what model of machine she was. Instead the terminator started walking towards Cameron and pointed his shotgun at her.

"I am unable to comply." The machine spoke.

Cameron opened fire at the machine bouncing bullets off its hardened endoskeleton chest. She tried to minimize the damage she would take by ducking around the pillars in the lobby. The machine was only able to hit Cameron with two shotgun shells to the arm and leg. The machine tossed the depleted shotgun to the floor not wanting to take the time to reload it with the shells attached to the side of the gun. It knew the shotgun shells were ineffective and that it would have to enter hand to hand combat with the unknown machine to stop her. The terminator outmatched Cameron's strength and tossed her into the wall. Cameron got back up only to be thrown down again and received a flurry of punches to her face. Sarah motioned Mark and John to move and Mark listened. He ran like the wind past the two battling machines and to the emergency exit and made it to the parking lot.

"John, I know what you are thinking, but this is not the time for heroics. Run like you mean it and run to get out quickly." Sarah demanded to her son.

"You go first, I will be right behind you." John told his mother.

Sarah grabbed Savannah and made a break for the exit. The machine saw how Mark made his exit and stopped his assault on Cameron and blocked the door. Sarah was in the middle of the lobby and realized she had very little cover. The machine reached for his pistol and Sarah made a dash to hide behind another pillar that was already shot up from the attack on Cameron. Cameron was still trying to recoup from the shock her system just took.

"Give me the girl and I will let you live" the machine told Sarah marching towards her.

"Over my dead body you metal piece of shit." Sarah angrily told the terminator trying to figure out what to do.

"That can be arranged, Sarah Connor." The machine said approaching her.

John saw what was going on and knew he had a clear path to make a break for it. He knew that would be what his mother would have wanted him to do. He looked and saw that he had no weapons and would be of no help for the situation and fled to the safety of the exit door. The machine saw him but knew that he couldn't block him fast enough. The machine didn't have time to scan for an identity so it pursued its target of Sarah and Savannah.

John made it to the door and saw his mother cornered. Cameron was just now to her feet and John realized even she didn't have enough time to protect Sarah. John did the only thing he thought he could do.

"My name is John Connor." John yelled at the machine.

The terminator heard him, turned around, and started to walk towards John. It now had a new primary termination target. As it walked to the door, Cameron was able to engage the terminator yet again and throw him into the wall. After striking him with her fists, he was able to push her off of him and to the ground. Cameron was able to break his sunglasses and cut the area around its right eye, but that was about all the damage she applied to the machine.

John saw the distraction work and Sarah was able to get herself and Savannah out of the building. They fled to the truck but John did not follow. John walked near the garbage dumpster and grabbed the sledgehammer that John Henry left behind after remodeling the basement.

"John Connor, get in the truck right now." Sarah screamed at him. Her words didn't faze him as he disappeared back into the building.

The terminator systematically started to resume its assault on Cameron who was getting up again. The battle of the machines waged on as the terminator grabbed Cameron's arm and tried to wrench it out of the socket and threw her back to the ground. He leaned over to pick her up again to inflict more damage to her. Cameron saw John walking towards the machine with the sledgehammer. The machine focused on Cameron and didn't see John approaching. John swung the sledgehammer like a baseball bat at its left leg. John knew that a swing to the head would only stun it at best and he would be outmatched quickly. John hoped that if the swing hit hard enough to knock it to the ground, it would buy Cameron more time. He delivered a shot to the back of the terminator's left leg causing it to buckle backwards while Cameron quickly kicked it in the chest causing the machine to fall on its back to the floor.

The machine systematically started to run a test to figure out what just happened and checked for damage. The machine saw John raise the sledgehammer with his remaining strength in the air.

The machine tried to defend itself, but John was quick enough to land the sledgehammer to the right side of its temple. The impact didn't do any structural damage to the machine but did cause enough of a shock to stun it temporarily. John's attack only exposed the terminators skull and its right eye which was glowing brightly.

The recoil from hitting the machine forced John to let go of the sledgehammer sending it sliding across the floor. John went to get pick it up, but the machine tripped John with its leg causing him to land face first to the floor. The machine was still trying to readjust itself from the shock that it just took to its head and started to get on its feet. Cameron was able to get up quicker than the terminator and continued to focus her attacks on the head region. She threw him into the wall head first and noticed that the machine was limping a little from John's first hit.

Cameron saw Sarah run in the building grabbing the gun from her waistband. Sarah took the focus of the machine by emptying the whole clip into the machines chest. It didn't do much damage to the terminator, but the distraction worked. She next ran to the shotgun the terminator dropped and started to reload it with the shells that was left on the side of the gun. Cameron took the advantage of the moment pushed the machine into the wall. Cameron then walked over to the basement door where John Henry was starting to build a steel enforced door. She ripped out a steel rod in the wall. The machine valiantly pushed itself out of the wall and headed towards Sarah. Sarah was able to get the shotgun loaded and blasted the machine four times before the force from the pellets knocked it to the ground. Cameron walked and stood over the machine holding the steel rod in her hands like a spear. She analyzed the machine for a weakness point to cut its main power supply from the CPU. Her HUD worked quickly as she raised the steel rod in the air and with lethal force pierced the area between the machine's breastplate and neck plate severing the terminator's power wire to its chip. A small electrical field generated out the machine since it had a new current path and John and Sarah heard the machine spark and slowly go powerless. The once brightly glowing exposed red eye turned into a powerless black dot. The resilient machine was finally defeated. Cameron played it safe and took out her knife and knelt down. Using the knife as a screwdriver, she removed the exposed port cover that John made visible from his second strike at the machine. She popped the port cover off and removed the CPU from the machine. The fight was now officially over.

Someone else walked through the door and Sarah quickly pointed her pistol in the general area. It was Weaver.

"Well, I leave for twenty minutes and this is what happens. I am glad to see that the three of you managed to bring down one of them." Weaver said looking not too happy the building was again in shambles after the battle that just took place there. "It's safe." Weaver yelled out the door.

Ellison walked in holding Savannah shielding her eyes from the scene of carnage. Mark followed closely behind him.

"Damn! That dude just got owned! Well I have some good news, actually two pieces of good news. One, I am still alive. Two, Sonya is back with the food!" Mark tried to break the seriousness of the situation.

"Burn the machine in the dumpster." Sarah said looking at Cameron noticing cuts on her face and bullets in her leg and arm. "The sooner the better."

"Actually, do you mind if I study it? Maybe I can learn something important from it." Mark asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

"No." Sarah sniped at Mark.

"Actually, that is a good idea." Weaver said. I will give you a week Mark, if you haven't figured out anything useful for us by then, we will burn it. Cameron can throw the machine in the basement for you. In the meantime, Ellison, Savannah, John Henry, and I are off to do what we wanted to before this happened. You all look exhausted. Take the rest of the day off" Weaver said as she left with Ellison out the door.


	27. Choices Don't Come Easily

**Chapter 27: Choices Don't Come Easily**

Cameron pulled the steel rod out of the disabled terminator and threw it on the ground next to her. She looked at John checking him for injuries but her HUD came up with nothing broken or injured.

"I am going to throw this in the basement." Cameron said picking up the terminator with little effort.

She walked down the stairs and laid the machine in the corner. She took the CPU from her pocket and examined it. It looked like a standard chip the T-800 model would use, yet it was so primitive to hers. She placed in on a table John Henry had put down there. She was about to resume the construction of the wooden frame when she noticed that a small drop of blood landed on the floor. She realized she took more exterior damage than what she thought, so it would be best for her to clean and patch herself up. No point of bleeding all over the wooden frame. Her endoskeleton was intact. She got about half way up the stairs and stopped to hear John and Sarah arguing.

"John that was flat out stupid. You damn well could have been killed. No one or no machine is worth your life." Sarah scolded John for his heroic actions.

John pretty much just stood there while his mother vented at him. Mark and Sonya were outside eating their sandwiches giving those two some much needed space.

"Mom, it is going to be the same discussion we have every time we see a terminator. Did I take a risk? Yes I did. I may have saved your life, Savannah's life, and maybe Cameron's life. Whatever may have happened is now a moot point." John replied to his mother.

"Your life is more important than all three of our lives combined. You don't seem to understand that." Sarah retaliated.

"Maybe that is so, but I will not stand around and watch others die that are important to me. Maybe the future John Connor can, but not the present John Connor. Will I fight one on one with a machine? No, that is just stupid. Will I try to distract one or be creative and buy others time to gain the advantage? You bet I will. If I am to be this great military leader, then I have to take the risks needed to earn that honor and respect. "John explained to his mother, which didn't seem like she took his answer very well.

Cameron decided that she better come up before it looked too obvious that she might be eavesdropping on them. She started towards them and saw Sarah greeted her with an unfriendly smile.

"Are you alright?" Sarah asked Cameron not believing what just came out of her own two lips.

"Yes, but I will have to patch my skin up. Luckily, my endoskeleton is undamaged. Thank you for asking." Cameron said.

"I have a first aid kit that you can use in the truck. It should be good enough to fix you temporarily until we go home for the day after Weaver and John Henry gets back." Sarah told Cameron. "I am going to go get some air. You four can manage without me for a while.

Sarah walked out of the building and into the city. She needed some time alone to clear her mind of everything that just occurred. Her son probably saved her life, saved Cameron's life, but didn't put himself first. She was proud of him for that, but scared that would be his downfall. The only thing that concerned her now is that John saved her life out of love. Did he feel the same about Cameron? She walked to a nearby Deli shop and got some lunch and sat down to watch random people for a while. She needed time to process her thoughts more.

Cameron in the meantime sloppily patched herself up just enough to stop the bleeding. She knew she could do a better job of it later at the house. Since she doesn't scar, she didn't think it was overly important. She walked back down stairs to see John trying to bolt some of the wooden frame down with Sonya's help. Mark was too busy looking at the CPU and the disabled machine stuffed in the corner.

By the time Sarah got back, John and Cameron were able to finish bolting down all the wooden frames for the basement.

"You know, now that I think about it, why does this basement now look like a small version of a dorm hall?" Decent sized rooms on one side, and then a study room and a recreational room. It is like freshman year all over again." Mark spoke out loud to himself.

"I think it will be roomier than you think Mark once it is all done." Cameron told him.

"Yeah Mark, quit your bitching and start doing some dry wall. Your drool is about to short circuit that CPU." John said making fun of Mark.

"Cameron, being a machine and protector of John, do you ever feel like tuning him out sometimes?" Mark asked about John.

"Yes. I do tune him out sometimes." Cameron said.

"What?" John asked completely shocked and intrigued.

"I only tuned you out in the future; I haven't done that in the present." Cameron tried to cover up her tracks.

Mark started laughing uncontrollably until Sonya slapped him. Even then he kept laughing. "Well the mighty John Connor just got owned again for the second time today!" Mark said laughing and holding up a piece of dry wall for Cameron to nail to the wooden frame.

About an hour later Weaver and company returned from shopping. Weaver was quite pleased to see the progression that was made while they were gone.

"That looks good enough for one human's day of work." Weaver told them. "Go back to the house and get some sleep. It will be the last night you stay at that house. John Henry and I believe we will have the basement done by morning and painted in the afternoon. It will be in good enough condition to sleep here tomorrow night. Mr. Ellison, please take Savannah back with you to the house."

John threw the hammer to the ground and he walked outside exhausted. Cameron drove one vehicle home while Sarah drove the truck. Once they all got back home, it seemed like the two showers in the house became quite popular in demand. Sarah claimed that it was age before beauty and that was final. Mark and Sonya didn't seem to care what the order was and plopped down on the sofa and turned on the television. Sarah headed for the upstairs shower and Ellison used the one downstairs.

John opened the refrigerator and got some orange juice out. Since it was almost empty he drank directly from the carton.

"You really should use a glass." Cameron looked at John and smiled.

"There are a lot of things I should do it seems." John answered back at Cameron. She was dusty, had some cuts, and sweaty but John really didn't care and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close to him. "I am just glad we are all alive to see another day." John told her.

"Why are Mark and Sonya watching a German home improvement show? I don't understand I didn't think they knew German." Cameron asked John looking confused putting her hand on his chest.

John took a step over to see if they were already passed out, but he was surprised to see them both awake. Considering that they were making out, John concluded that they really didn't care what channel the television was on.

"Well Cameron, I don't think they are watching the show, I think they are just using the sound as cover." John smiled at Cameron.

"Cover for what? I don't understand?" Cameron tilted her head looking confused.

"Basically they are hoping the sound from the television will be louder than those sounds that they are creating by trying to suck each other's lips off their face." John explained as Mark rose his hand up in the air and gave John a big thumbs up in the air.

"Well he better enjoy while he can." John said out loud and laughed.

"Why is that?" Cameron asked.

"Are you kidding me? Once the hall monitor gets out of the shower, all time for lips wars are over." John explained to Cameron.

"Oh you are talking about Sarah. That is true. I don't think she would allow anything of that nature around her." Cameron said looking at the ground then back at John. Mark heard them again and after hearing about Sarah the hall monitor he gave John a thumb down to the ground. Cameron and John then started to exchange smiles between each other.

"You know Cameron that look you are giving me right now is pretty damn irresistible." John whispered at Cameron.

"I was hoping it would be." Cameron said closing the small gap between them making their lips meet once again.

John pulled back quickly and harshly when an odd look on his face like he just bit into a lemon. "Wow." He said.

"I'm sorry. I won't do that again." Cameron replied trying to figure out why she just got rejected from John. She replayed the moment in her head and it was the same exact kiss they shared twice already.

"No, it's not you Cam, but the taste of dry wall is horrible!" John explained to Cameron rather loudly as he was in wiping his tongue off with his hand and getting a glass of water. He walked back to her realizing that it looked like he disliked her coming on to him, which wasn't the case at all. He placed his finger on her lips and gently ran it across. He then showed her a film of white powder on his finger. Cameron looked at John and smiled out of relief that it was the horrible taste of dry wall and not her at all. Their moment was broken up by large thud on the floor and John looked to see Mark break out into laughter.

"You just got cock blocked by dry wall dust." Mark shouted out trying to draw air into his lungs. It seems that this was more blissful for Mark to point out now rather than keep his attention on his girlfriend.

John blushed a little and Cameron followed suit.

"Maybe after we get cleaned up we can continue that thought?" Cameron asked with an innocent yet seductive tone to John.

John didn't have to say anything as jaw dropping to the ground gave her the answer she wanted. Cameron heard Sarah turn off the shower so she figured she would get ready for her turn and headed up the stairs. John grabbed the remote off the floor and started watching a comedy show. Mark however was still laughing to himself about the drywall on the lips.

Ellison walked into the kitchen with a new set of clean clothes, so Sonya got up and took her turn.

Mark and John watched for a while, and Mark started to question John.

"So back there in the office. You sort of either knew what you were doing, or you totally risked your life for Cameron." Mark told John.

"Cameron means a lot to me, so does my mom and Savannah. It seemed like the only option at the time." John told Mark.

"But you saw that metal monster. It clearly was the strongest there. We got lucky." Mark said.

"I know, we need to tip the scales in our favor. Maybe we can learn something from that endoskeleton in the office tomorrow night." John calmly replied.

Sarah came downstairs and sat in the chair.

"You guys mind if I join you while you wait on the girls to get out of the shower?" Sarah asked trying to break her hard outer shell that she gave John earlier today.

"Go for it." John said.

John dozed off until his mom nudged him on the arm.

"John, Cameron is out. Your turn, then you can go to bed." Sarah informed him.

"Alright, alright I'm going." John tiredly replied.

John walked up to the bathroom to see Cameron brushing her hair wearing a white towel.

"I'm going to go seal up some of my cuts, do you mind helping me with the ones I can't reach after your shower?" Cameron asked John.

"Yeah sure," John said grabbing a fresh pair of clothes and towel. He stood around in the shower longer than normal for some reason. Half being that the hot water was refreshing, and the other half was John's time to think about everything that went down. It was his turn to shut the outside world off and contemplate. He got out of the shower and got dressed and knocked on Cameron's door.

"Are you dressed?" John asked.

"Yes, come in." Cameron told him. "Sarah already came up and patched me up since you took too long in the shower. I think she was making sure I wasn't in there with you." She smiled at John with a small amount of guilt of her face. She moved over and patted the mattress for John to sit down. John did so as she continued to brush her hair.

"You were really brave today John. I admire that." Cameron told him. "But just be more careful. Don't let emotion cloud your decisions."

"Cam, tell me something I haven't already been told a hundred times today already." John rebuked her referring to his mother's lecture and Mark's comments from earlier.

"Okay," Cameron said putting the brush on the dresser. "I don't have any more dry wall dust on my lips anymore." She said pulling him closer to her.

"Oh really?" John said going from defensive to seduced by Cameron's comment and scooting closer to her.

"Really." Cameron told him as they started to kiss. John put his hand around her waist until Cameron pulled back from John's lips, knocked his hand back, and grabbed the brush. Before John could figure out what was wrong, he heard the door knob turn. It was his mother. John tried to make it look smooth by talking about how he wants to look at the CPU for memories and maybe other machines.

Sarah stood there not knowing what to think, but her gut instinct told her that they haven't been talking privately about CPU memories.

"We might have a problem." Sarah said in all seriousness.


	28. Grand Enterances

**Chapter 28: Grand Entrances**

Cameron didn't take Sarah's words lightly. She immediately got up and looked fully alert. John thought his mother was just trying to make sure that he and Cameron weren't doing anything she wouldn't like. John laid back on the bed and didn't look interested in what his mother was worried about.

"What is the problem Sarah?" Cameron asked.

"I think we are being watched. Come down stairs and tell me what you see Cameron." Sarah practically ordered Cameron.

Cameron swiftly walked down the stairs and grabbed her handgun that she left on the kitchen counter. She was careful not to stand in front of the window to alert the potential stalker that he or she was caught. She walked by the window and sat down on the chair acting like she was watching television. From there she could see everything. Her HUD started to scan every car outside the house. Every car was empty and clear except for a black car, which had someone in the driver's seat that looked nervous. Cameron felt that this was the guy Sarah was talking about.

"Sarah, are you thinking the male that looks about thirty years old in the black car next to the big tree is watching us? Cameron asked Sarah.

"Yes, that's him. I don't like him out there. We need to find out what he is doing out there." Sarah replied.

"I agree. I will go out the back door and catch him by surprise. My initial scan didn't show anyone outside with him, however I want you go get everyone upstairs just in case. Are you armed?" Cameron asked Sarah.

"Yes." Sarah answered Cameron and showed her the gun in her waistband.

Cameron walked quietly outside the house and slowly maneuvered to the car that the driver was waiting in. She waited for a minute before she did anything to see if she could gain any knowledge on the situation. Being a machine she didn't want to take any unneeded risks. She quietly came up beside and car and ripped off the passenger side door from the car and tossed it in the neighbor's lawn. She reached in and grabbed the man out of the car and threw him to the ground. She drew her gun and pressed it against the man's skull.

"Why are you watching our house? Talk quickly or your life will soon be over." Cameron forcefully told the man.

The man started to laugh and spat on Cameron. "Kiss my ass bitch; you just failed your mission." The man continued to laugh at her until Cameron pistol whipped him knocking him out cold.

Sarah in the meantime grabbed Sonya off of Mark and firmly told them to get upstairs immediately. The three of them ran up the steps and heard the door leading to the garage open. Sarah was about to go check it out but she knew if it was a terminator that she had no chance to win against it. She pointed for Mark and Sonya to run in the bedroom. John was up by now and walked to the door realizing something was now horribly wrong. Sarah beat down the door where Ellison and Savannah were at. Ellison was passed out in a chair while Savannah was listening to a story book with headphones on. Sarah picked up a book and threw it at Ellison to wake him up. Despite being groggy he got up and knew something was wrong seeing how Sarah had a gun in her pajama's waistband. He picked up Savannah and followed Sarah's silent orders to get in the bedroom. As Ellison was about to get in the room a man in a black ski mask reached the top of the stairs and raised his gun at him. Ellison pushed Savannah in the room first for her safety. John noticed that his mom didn't see the man as she was too busy looking behind her shoulder at him making sure he didn't run off to find Cameron. John dove at his mom's waist reaching for the gun in her waistband. John was able to get the gun but crashed them both against the wall causing a loud thud. The man with the black ski mask took two shots at Ellison. The first one missed but the second one hit him below the shoulder knocking him down and blood started to spill out from the freshly made hole. John took aim with his gun and returned fire at the assassin. He shot him in the stomach and leg causing him to fall down on the floor. The man tried to shoot John with this remaining strength, but John shot the man in the throat officially taking his life. John dropped the gun and sat against the wall. Sarah hobbled over to Ellison trying to see how bad the injury was. Mark witnessed everything and started to reach for his iPhone to call 911.

"No Mark. We can't call the police or 911. Put the phone down. If we get taken into custody or get on the records we are all dead. Skynet will know where we are." Sarah said frantically applying pressure to Ellison's shoulder trying to stop the bleeding.

Cameron ripped off the trunk door and saw that the man had explosives and various other supplies in the back. Cameron quickly ran to the door of the house and saw that the front door was rigged with explosives if anyone would turn the handle from the inside. Cameron did not want to waste time checking other doors for traps and knew the best entry would be just to ram through the side of the house. She backed up and dashed to the house busting through the wall. Dry wall and some pieces of the wooden frame tumbled down on to her and the floor. The only thing that was damaged was the television that was now lying broken on the floor. Cameron didn't even bother shaking the debris off of her and headed to the stair steps. She called out to John but there was no answer. She was hoping that he was alright and feared the worst. As she got up the stairs she saw the carnage of what just happened. Her HUD scanned the man in the black ski mask on the floor and found out he was terminated. She walked past the bedroom to see John sitting on the bed resting his head on his hands. Her HUD showed that he had no physical injuries. She saw Sarah helping Ellison who was shot and bleeding out. He was in critical condition and was losing a lot of blood. Cameron worked on stopping the bleeding with the right pressure and asked Sarah to get old t-shirts or anything she could potentially use.

Sarah grabbed what shirts she could and Cameron was able to finally stop the bleeding but Ellison fell unconscious.

"Is he going to be okay?" Sarah asked Cameron trying to block out her own pain from her twisted ankle John gave her from the dive to get the gun.

"I don't know, Sarah. I bought him some time by stopping the bleeding, but I don't have the tools here to fix him up." Cameron said with a long face knowing she was powerless to help in this case. "We need to get out of here right now after I deem it is clear outside. There are explosives on the front door and probably other places. I made a new exit we can use downstairs that we can use to get out.

Sarah saw her son on the bed clearly upset, but she snapped him to attention and started to follow Cameron's lead. Sarah carried Savannah, while Cameron was carrying Ellison down the stairs and outside.

"Oh man, I heard of some grand exits and entrances, but Cameron did you really have to take out the television?" Mark said trying to joke his way out of the fear that gripped everyone in the group.

"We need a vehicle." Sarah said looking around for a potential van or truck they could steal.

"I know where one is." Cameron said as laid Ellison down on the ground and she crossed the street and broke open a garage door revealing a large minivan. She jumped in the van and hotwired the engine to start. She drove across the street and parked it for everyone to get in. Cameron got out and told Sarah to drive.

"I hope they didn't hear you break into that house." Sarah looked worried that Cameron was getting sloppy.

"They have been on vacation for five days now. According to a conversation I overheard, they will not be home for another week." Cameron responded back to Sarah proving her thoughts about Cameron's quality of work was wrong.

John helped his mom carry Ellison to the van and laid him down on the middle row of seats. He was still unconscious.

Everyone was in the van and Cameron walked back to the black car dragging a man by his arm down the side of the road towards the van. Sarah watched and met her half way.

"So this is the driver I assume." Sarah asked Cameron.

"Yes, he is." Cameron replied.

"Wake him up." Sarah told Cameron. "I want to know right now who sent him."

Cameron slapped the man on the face and he slowly came back to reality. He looked around and saw that it looked like the machine and Sarah were both alive which didn't make him overly happy.

"Who sent you?" Sarah asked firmly.

"Piss off." The man said.

"Did you know there are 206 bones in the human body? I recommend you tell me before I have Cameron start breaking every damn one of them." Sarah threatened the man.

"Go ahead and kill me, I won't tell you shit." The man said spitting on Sarah.

"Cameron, start with the hand and work your way around." Sarah instructed Cameron as she grabbed the man's hand about to give him the handshake of his life when suddenly a phone started ringing. Sarah looked at Cameron and realized that they may have just caught a break. Cameron let go of his hand and grabbed his throat to copy his voice and shut him up. Cameron with her free hand grabbed the phone and answered it.

"Yeah." Cameron answered the phone matching the driver's voice of the car.

"Are they dead yet?" the man on the other end of the phone asked. Cameron ran tests on the voice and confirmed it was the voice of Dan Dyson.

"All of the Connors are dead. The machine got blown up after it used the front door to go on its standard patrol. The second explosion went off in the garage after they went for the car. I looked and saw no survivors. The two blasts caught the house on fire. They are all dead. No one got out."

"Excellent work, David. Now change cars and get to this location that I will text you at eight in the morning. It is a small shipment of Coltan so bring a truck." Dan told him and hung up the phone.

Cameron put the phone in her pocket and let go of the man's throat.

"You son of a bitch, do you have any idea what he is trying to do?" Sarah furiously asked him.

"Yeah, I do. We are fighting for the winning team." The man said reaching in his back pocket for a knife. His attempts were worthless as Cameron slammed her foot down on his hand breaking a few bones in the process.

"Cameron, normally you would never hear me say this. However, I think you need to do what you do best to this guy. He pisses me off." Sarah said judging the man. "I am going to drive the van up a few blocks to the drug store and purchase some medical supplies. I will see you there shortly." Sarah continued as she walked away going towards the van.

Cameron nodded and Sarah got in the van.

"Go to hell." the man shouted at Sarah.

"You first." Sarah said driving away with the van in complete silence.

Cameron grabbed the man by his collar and dragged him towards the house.

"Join our side and we will let you live." The man attempted to persuade Cameron.

"I decline your offer." Cameron told the man as she grabbed him by the arm and threw him straight into the front door setting off a massive explosion that set the house a blaze. Her HUD confirmed the obvious termination and she walked to the van as Sarah was there waiting for her. Cameron got in and sat next to John who was still silent.

"We need to get to the office." Cameron said. "We need help if we expect Mr. Ellison to survive his injuries."

Sarah started the van and drove towards the office and looked at her son in the rear view mirror. She was afraid of the ramifications of her son killing a second man in his early life would cause more mental distress like it did the first time. She then looked over to see Ellison's wounds had started bleeding again. She stepped on the gas pedal a little harder.


	29. Love Like a Human, Fight Like a Machine

**Chapter 29: Love Like a Human, Fight Like a Machine**

"Cameron, how is Ellison doing?" Sarah asked as she was pulling into the parking lot of Windrunner Corporation.

"Not good." Cameron told Sarah. "I slowed down the bleeding again, but after running a scan, I have found he has internal injuries. I do not have the necessary skills or tools here to save him." She continued.

Sarah turned the vehicle off and rushed to help Cameron get Ellison out of the van. Mark jumped out and opened the door for them.

After they got in, Mark yelled downstairs to Weaver for help. No one responded. Mark yelled again and finally Weaver walked slowly up the stairs to see Ellison lying on the ground bleeding while Cameron was applying pressure to his shoulder.

"What happened?" Weaver asked walking towards Ellison on the ground.

"Dan sent two of his people after us, Cameron took care of one and the other slipped through the house and shot Ellison." Sarah said.

"John Henry, please go downstairs and get the blow torch." Weaver instructed.

John Henry obeyed and walked downstairs. Sarah looked for John who was just now walking in the door.

"I am going to take Mr. Ellison upstairs. There is no need for anyone to see me operate on him and my methods aren't exactly visually pleasing. I will be back shortly. I want to know everything that happened tonight and how Cameron failed to stop two humans." Weaver said scooping up Ellison off the ground and headed upstairs. "Now either help downstairs or get some rest." She said disappearing walking up the stairs.

"John, I know after everything that just happened there is a lot going through your head right now. You need to accept it for what it is and part of your fate. You need to be not only mentally tough but physically tough right now. Got it?" Sarah asked John who was staring blankly at the ground where only a small pool of blood remained from where Ellison was at.

"I'm fine if that is what you are asking." John shortly replied to his mother. He walked away from everyone and headed downstairs.

Sarah watched him leave their company and looked at Cameron.

"Well my attempt to pull him out of it quickly just failed. Maybe you can get through to him. I can't afford to have John mentally shutdown now. I know he is just a boy, but I can't have him out of play for months like he was the first time he killed someone saving his own life. Not with everything that is going on currently. Maybe you can get through to him, make sure he is alright." Sarah looked at Cameron knowing she was pushing her to John.

Cameron looked at Sarah amazed that she was hoping John would open up to her over his own mother. She didn't say anything but gave Sarah a nod and walked downstairs.

Sonya and Mark were by the doorway and looked at Sarah.

"Look, I know it isn't exactly the safest out there right now, but Sonya and I need to get out of here for a few hours. I am already freaked out about Ellison almost dying and quite frankly, the Weaver chick still freaks me out a little bit. Yes, by design she is awesome, but damn we need to get out for awhile." Mark explained to Sarah as Sonya and Mark left the building.

"What if a machine is waiting for you?" Sarah said running out the door trying to stop them.

"We refuse to live in total fear Sarah. You can force feed that into John's mind, but we won't live our life by it. We want to be able to live without being scared all the time. We want to be able to grab a few drinks in public or go out and see a chick flick." Sonya spoke up for the first time in a long while.

"Can't we see a manly movie for once Sonya?" Mark teased her.

"If we see the chick flick, we can make out during the previews." Sonya countered Mark.

"Chick flick it is!" Mark smiled as they walked away into the night of Orlando.

Sarah quietly walked upstairs to see how Ellison was doing. Knowing that Weaver didn't want to be bothered, she just stood and watched. John Henry was next to Weaver helping her with detailed knowledge and scans. Weaver used her unique strengths of being a liquid terminator to form small and sharp knifes to repair and remove the bullet from Ellison's shoulder. Sarah had to leave when she saw John Henry use a small piece of metal and used the blow torch to heat it up to a bright orange glow. Considering they didn't have true hospital supplies, the only way they had to stop the bleeding and infection was to scorch the wound shut.

Cameron saw John sitting on the floor with a laptop.

"What are you looking at?" Cameron asked John.

"Nothing really, just the top news stories of the day." John responded.

"Can I sit down with you? Cameron smiled at John.

"You can do whatever you want." John shortly replied to her. "Sorry, yeah, please have a seat."

Cameron walked over to John and leaned against the wall and let gravity slide her back down the wall and sit next to John. She watched John surf the Internet and noticed that with the speed of websites being changed, there was no way he was reading the articles.

"How do you do it? I mean do you feel anything when you take a life?" John asked Cameron realizing the question he just asked was pointless.

"I think you know the answer to that question John. But I don't think that is what you are really meaning to ask. I do feel guilty if someone innocent is harmed or killed." Cameron replied.

"Guilty? I don't see Skynet sub-programming guilt into anyone." John mumbled not looking at the laptop anymore.

"You are right John. Skynet didn't teach me guilt or pity. You did. You taught me these things in the future after you reprogrammed me." Cameron explained looking at John.

"Do you think it makes you a better person?" John asked randomly out of the blue.

"Yes it makes me a better person, but going from an effective killing machine to being considerate of human life (all the time) was sort of annoying." Cameron said looking at John with a smile. She reached out her hand and placed it on top of Johns slightly squeezing it.

"You know in the future you told me one time how you had to take a life. The soldier you were forced to kill was about to let machines into your bunker, and the only way to save the hundreds of others, you were forced to shoot him before he opened the door. Even in the future you didn't like it. But sometimes John, in order to survive a war for mankind's existence, you will have to take life." Cameron told him.

"How did I get over it? All I see is the man I shot tonight dying in my mind over and over. Just like the first life I took. Sometimes even when I sleep I see their faces." John told Cameron with a tears building up in his eyes.

"You were eating in the recreational room one day and one of your officers told you something that really stuck with you. You told me about it that night after I got back from a mission you gave me. You told me he said that sometimes you need to learn to act like a terminator when you are fighting, just like I needed to act like a normal human being when I am not fighting." Cameron explained to him.

"That makes sense I guess." John said starting to pull himself together.

"When you are under attack John, it's either you or your enemy that will die, the actions that occur within that time, stay in that time." Cameron spoke to him. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I was proud of my 'Johninator' tonight." She continued with a big smile on her face looking at John.

"So you are proud of me huh?" John smiled back at Cameron.

"Yes, well your aiming needs work, but we can work on improving that later." Cameron grinned at him.

"Shut up Cam." John said getting up off the ground not giving up Cameron's hand. "I suppose we should work on a game plan for tomorrow morning."

Sarah was relieved to hear her son back on track, even though it did bring John and Cameron closer than they already were. She figured now would be a good time to show her presence and help with a game plan for tomorrow morning. She walked down the rest of the stairs and turned the corner. What she didn't expect to see was her son holding Cameron's hand. The vision of their budding relationship stopped her thoughts completely.

"Mom!" John said quickly letting go of Cameron's hand. "How is Ellison?" he tried to divert her attention from the possibility that she just saw them holding hands. He was hoping that if his mom did see it, that it didn't explode into another issue altogether.

"I am not sure how Ellison is doing. The last I saw, Weaver was still working on him. I was coming to see how you were doing." Sarah told John trying to swallow her emotions.

"I'll be fine. Cameron sort of snapped me out of it. I know there are more important things at hand we need to focus on." John told his mother.

"I see that." Sarah said keeping her cool.

Weaver walked down the stairs with John Henry and saw them talking. "So explain to me everything that happened tonight." Weaver demanded looking displeased with Cameron.

"I will explain everything right after you tell me how Ellison is." John asked breaking Weaver's stare off of Cameron.

Weaver looked at John and smirked. "Ellison lost a lot of blood, but he will be fine. He will need a few weeks of recovery before he is of any use to us." Weaver explained.

"That's good news." John told Weaver. He started explaining everything that happened that night.

"That is most interesting, yet disturbing. We need a solid plan and we don't have any details yet." Weaver spoke. "Where are Mark and Sonya?"

"They needed some fresh air so they went to a movie. They assured me that they would be back before too long." Sarah informed Weaver.

John Henry picked up the laptop and started looking up medical information about Ellison's wound and what possible complications could arise. He then heard a noise come from Cameron's pocket. Cameron grabbed the phone and looked at it.

"We have the instructions on where David was supposed to pick up the coltan tomorrow morning." Cameron told everyone as she read off the driving instructions.

John Henry looked it up on the internet. "The location you just read off to me Cameron is a location of an old abandoned power plant. That is a weird place to make an exchange considering the light amount of coltan to be exchanged." He redundantly stated as everyone already thought it in their minds.

"It sounds like it could be a potential trap. I don't like it. I will go alone." Cameron told everyone there.

"If it is a trap, why would you even think about going alone?" John hashed out at Cameron.

"We need to find out who is supplying the coltan to Dan and also keep it away from him." Cameron explained. "If I find out that there are machines there, I will flee the scene John. I promise." She continued.

John didn't like the thought of Cameron going alone at all and went upstairs knowing that he wouldn't be able to convince anyone that he should be going too. He saw Mark and Sonya come back from their movie date.

"How was the movie?" John asked Mark.

"It was just wonderful John, I think I needed a tissue halfway through the movie." Mark laughed rolling his eyes.

"Good to know." John replied not really caring about his own question. "Hey, do you mind if I ask you for a favor?"


	30. Power Trip

**Chapter 30: Power Trip**

"I don't know if I can do that John, but I can try." Mark answered John about his favor.

"Thanks Mark, I am hoping I don't have to go behind everyone's back, but I want eyes on that power plant as soon as humanly possible." John reinforced.

"Got it," Mark said, "looks like I will be up all night then trying to hack a satellite." Mark told John.

"I am going to ask John Henry to do it now, but you are Plan B." John told Mark.

"Isn't this illegal?" Sonya spoke up.

"Yeah, only if you get caught." John looked at Sonya with a smirk.

"I like it, sounds hot." Sonya said jabbing Mark in the ribs.

John sought out John Henry. "John Henry, can you tap into a government or commercial satellite and retarget it on the power plant that Cameron is going to in the morning?" he asked.

"John, that sounds like a good idea, but the amount of risk doing that versus the pending mission, well, I am sorry but it isn't worth it. Don't worry. Cameron is more than capable to deal with the mission." John Henry explained to him.

"But John Henry, I understand the risk, but I think we should be ready for anything." John tried to reverse his decision.

"I understand your concern, but try not to worry John. Cameron will be fine. Get some rest. I am sure you are exhausted after tonight." John Henry cemented his decision. "I will leave you be. I must go check on Mr. Ellison."

John looked disappointed as John Henry walked away. He saw Mark walk down the stairs and Mark noticed himself under John's stare.

"Plan B is a go." John said looking at Mark taking a seat on the floor trying to get some rest.

Mark cracked his knuckles and started to work on John's favor via the laptop. He tried to sit in such an angle that no one could see what he was doing.

"So what is Plan B?" Cameron asked John as she sat beside him.

"Oh it is nothing, just thinking of something to do tonight since we blew up the only television we had. So now it is time for Plan B for something to do tonight." John tried to cover up his lie, hating himself for not being honest with her. He wanted to be, but John knew that she would tell him the same thing and stop Mark from hacking a satellite.

"Oh." Cameron paused. "Or you could try to sleep." Cameron told John as she leaned into him. "Unless you want to make out," She whispered in his ear.

John blushed a bright red. "Where did you hear that idea at?" John asked.

"Sonya told me. She told me that guys like that sort of thing." Cameron smiled at John.

John looked and saw Sonya sitting next to Mark with her head resting on his shoulder. "Yeah I think I like that idea, but not in front of everyone. You know?" John said trying to not sound like a loser.

Sarah was spotted by John walking down the stairs.

"It is quiet down here." Sarah said. "Am I interrupting anything?" she continued.

"Nothing started to be interrupted mom." John replied to her question. "How is Ellison doing?"

"Well I think he is stable. Weaver and John Henry came up and I needed to get away from some of the metal tension." Sarah explained her motive for coming downstairs.

"It is about midnight. I am going to go patrol the area for a few hours. I don't want any more surprises for a while." Cameron told John as she got up and headed out of John's sight.

"Well, don't stay up too late. I am sure we have a busy day tomorrow." Sarah said going into one of the unfinished rooms and went to bed.

John knowing that his mother finally fell asleep, got up and sat on the other side of Mark and watched him work his magic on the military satellite. Without his mother being awake, he knew that they wouldn't get questioned about what they were doing.

Two hours later Mark raised his hands in the air excitedly. "I got it." Mark told John who was half asleep and his eyes were glazed over.

The excitement gave John a second wind and noticed that Mark successfully had control of the satellite. "Okay let's find this power plant." He continued.

After a few minutes, John and Mark found the abandoned power plant that Cameron was going to in the morning. Since it was dark outside, the images were of little use to them.

"Can you keep the satellite pointed at the plant until morning? I will look at it then when it will be useful to me." John told Mark.

"Yeah, that's cool. Just hit the refresh button in the morning and you will have live feed." Mark said closing the laptop and laid down on the floor. "Now if you don't mind, Sonya and I are going to get some sleep."

"Yeah, thanks Mark. I owe you big." John told Mark as he heard someone enter the office building.

"I assume everything is clear outside, Cameron?" Weaver asked.

"Correct. There are no threats outside tonight." Cameron replied to Weaver.

John overheard Weaver and Cameron talk about something but couldn't make it out. He was too tired to get up and try to overhear what they were discussing. He figured Weaver was still cranky about Ellison getting shot and Cameron was getting the shit end of the stick.

He saw her walk down the stairs. "You aren't asleep yet?" Cameron asked John in a soft voice so she wouldn't wake up the others.

"How can I sleep without my protector?." John replied. "I need you to save me from all my nightmares." He grinned at her.

Cameron sat down with John. He stared at her for a while still feeling guilty about lying to her. Cameron sensed he was stressed and figured he wasn't happy about her going alone in the morning. She didn't know if this was distracting John from being unhappy or whether she just wanted to, but she planted a kiss on John's lips. John's guilt was quickly shoved aside. One kiss led to another one, each one not wanting to stop. Cameron analyzed him and noticed his stress levels and blood pressure were higher than normal. She thought she better pull away and tell John goodnight. Cameron was at a loss with all the feelings she was having.

Morning came all too soon as John was awakened by Cameron getting up to head out to the power plant.

"You sure that I can't go with you?" John asked one more time.

"The risk level of the mission is clear for you to stay here. I promise, if I see anything bad, I won't engage the enemy." Cameron tried to reassure him again.

Everyone else started to wake up as Cameron marched up the stairs and left the building.

John looked at his mom. "So Mom, remember how you told me breakfast is important" he asked.

"I remember." Sarah answered him.

"I can go grab pancakes and bring them back. I need to stretch my legs and get some air anyways." Sonya told Sarah.

"I think that sounds like a great plan. I will go with you. John is a picky eater." Sarah teased her son.

"Picky meaning not burnt, then yes, yes I am." John wittily answered his mother.

Sarah and Sonya headed out and went to get the boys some breakfast.

"Finally." John said going for the laptop. He hit the refresh data button like Mark told him too and a crystal clear image of the power plant appeared on the screen. No one was there even though the meeting was only one hour away.

John looked up the distance from the office to the power plant and figured it would take about fifteen minutes to get there. He looked over and saw that Mark was still asleep. John felt like he was a zombie, but stayed alert. He was glad he did when a blue truck pulled into the power plant. John watched carefully and zoomed in on the two men. Judging by the size of them, there was no way they were machines. John felt a huge sense of relief, but continued to watch carefully.

----------

Dan Dyson was busy working away on his laptop. "You know we should be able to acquire enough coltan in about 2 month's time to test out the new processors." Dan told his liquid terminator companion.

"That is ahead of schedule. Double check your numbers. I don't like to be disappointed." It spoke to Dan.

"Relax, I've worked harder then you give me credit for, and don't forget that." Dan snapped at the liquid metal. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. While typing with one hand and getting the phone with the other he read the text message. He stopped typing on the laptop and looked at the liquid metal.

"I want you to take care of the power plant personally." Dan told the liquid metal.

"Why, isn't David capable of doing this small mission?" it asked.

"Yes, but I don't want any survivors of this transaction, not even David. Too many loose ends piss me off." Dan instructed the machine.

"My favorite type of mission, terminate everything in my way." The machine spoke. "I will get there in six minutes."

Dan looked at the triple eight guarding the door. "As for you, I think you need to get some breakfast." He continued with grin on his face putting the phone back in his pocket.

-----------------

Sarah and Sonya were walking down the sidewalk and Sonya decided to speak her mind about John and Cameron.

"You know, I was thinking we need some time off from everything. Maybe Mark and I and John and Cameron get away one day and go to the beach. You could have a day to yourself, and the other machines could watch Ellison." Sonya talked to Sarah.

"So basically I am not invited to the beach?" Sarah looked at Sonya trying to figure out where this was coming from.

"You could go, but not to shadow John, which you would do if you were at the beach." Sonya explained to Sarah.

"John is my son, but not only that, he is very important for the future of mankind. That makes it my business to know everything that is going on." Sarah told Sonya.

"I understand, but we still need some personal time, some alone time." Sonya danced around the topic as carefully as she could.

"Couple time is what you are talking about. What makes you think I want my son to take a machine as a girlfriend?" Sarah asked.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but I think you would be pissed off at any girl, human or machine, that John would date. At least with Cameron, she will die to protect him, not put him in harm's way, never betray him and well if you played your cards right, you could probably get her to convince John to do less stupid things. She already casts some influence on him, if they were a couple, she would have more." Sonya discussed with Sarah about the topic.

The two bantered back and forth about the entire concept as they ignored getting breakfast all together for the time being.

-----

John's eyes were getting heavy again watching the laptop screen. Just as John closed his eyes, Mark woke up and hit him on the arm.

"Dude, what vehicle is that?" Mark asked.

John snapped himself wide awake as he saw another truck pull up to the power plant. It wasn't Cameron because she took the van. John watched as a female got out of the truck and approached to two guys hanging outside their truck waiting. John watched as the female walked up to one of the guys and saw a metal knife go through the man's chest. The other man quickly was terminated as well through a metal spike in his eye. John panicked as he remembered that was Dan's girlfriend at the conference the other week.

John sprung up not caring about the laptop as it crashed to the floor. He ran up the stairs and dashed out the door as quickly as he could. He tried to call Cameron but it went right to voicemail. He tried again and left a message that it was a set up. John ran to the corner of the road and saw a man waiting for the red light to turn green on his sports motorcycle. John ran to him and shoved him off the bike and stole it.

"Sorry." John yelled squealing the tires on the road racing to Cameron's location. He knew what he done was foolish and stupid, but rationalism was something John didn't care about now. He must get to Cameron in time before the liquid metal would have its way with her.

-------

"Alright, I will consider it, but you better damn well know there will be house rules." Sarah said looking at Sonya while crossing the road.

"Sarah, watch out!" Sonya yelled running up to her and shoving her off the road.

Sarah witnessed a white truck that looked like it slammed directly into Sonya, and then proceeded to crash itself directly into a brick building. Sarah laid there on the sidewalk with thoughts of concern about Sonya and then she noticed how far she was pushed off the road. Her thoughts froze from questioning Sonya's strength to complete horror as a man with a leather jacket with dark shades got out of the truck carrying a gun in its hand.


	31. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

**Chapter 31: Wrong Place, Wrong Time**

Cameron saw the power plant and the truck waiting for her. There was only one man in the truck. She scanned the area and saw no one else around and concluded that she could proceed with the transaction that was set up. She parked the van in the parking lot leaving the keys in the van and opened the door. She left the van running just in case anything or anyone was waiting for her inside the plant. The driver of the truck got out and started to walk towards Cameron.

"I am here to pick up the coltan." Cameron spoke at the stranger.

"Of course you are." The man spoke at her. "But there has been a slight change of plans. You see, instead of you picking up the coltan, we decided to pick you up and terminate you." The man said as it shifted into its original shape that Cameron recognized as Dan's girlfriend.

Cameron drew her gun and emptied the whole clip into the liquid metal which didn't slow down the machine.

"Pathetic." It told Cameron as it extended her fingers at Cameron forming a knife and slicing Cameron's cheek drawing her synthetic blood.

Cameron started walking backwards to the van for an attempt for a quick escape but the liquid metal grabbed her and the fight began.

Sarah snapped back to her senses and quickly got up. She was almost certain that the man coming out of the truck was a terminator and started to run. She ran into an alley to try to get out of the terminator's vision. She was worried about Sonya, because if Sarah was wrong and she just pushed her out of the way, then Sonya is surely dead. If she is a machine, then how the hell did Sarah not pick it up faster? Her time to think was cut short as she heard bullets bounce off the buildings around her. The machine was hot on her trail. Sarah quickly turned the corner and resumed running for her life. She knew she couldn't run into Windrunner Corp because that would be risking bringing a machine into John's path, but Weaver would be there to destroy it. The risk was too much for Sarah to bring the machine to the office. Running as fast as she could for what seemed like forever, Sarah turned another corner and bent over to catch her breath. With any luck she has evaded the machine. Knowing that was a small possibility, Sarah looked around the corner to see if she could find out where and how close the machine was. As she peeked around the corner she saw a man walking in the alley, but it wasn't the terminator. It was some homeless man pushing a cart filled with soda cans. She leaned against the brick wall and let out a deep sigh closing her eyes. It seemed she was on the clear. As she exhaled, she felt an overwhelming grip on her throat. Trying to catch her breath she opened her eyes and saw the terminator, a cold metal machine ready to destroy her.

The terminator picked Sarah up off her feet by her throat and Sarah was starting to turn blue in the face with the lack of oxygen. Sarah kicked and fought but to no avail when she saw Sonya somewhat damaged with some of her endoskeleton showing grab the terminators arm, causing the release of Sara, and threw him into the building.

Sarah could tell that something was wrong because despite Sonya saving her life, the force she was now able to apply to the terminator was almost slim to none. The terminator grabbed Sonya by the arm and twisted it out of the socket. The sound Sarah heard was bone chilling even if it was done to a machine. It was a sound she never wanted to hear. The terminator grabbed Sonya by her head and threw her into Sarah crashing them both into the building. Sonya wobbly and slow moving got up and saw the terminator pull out a grenade and toss it into the newly made opening in the building.

The grenade landed by Sarah's feet and she was decked out by Sonya to the floor. Sonya with her good arm threw the grenade away from them. The grenade went off as it was tossed and the explosion almost took the whole building down. The smoke filled the air outside and debris scattered everywhere on the inside of the building. Sonya was barely able to push the debris off of her and she scanned Sarah vitals. Sarah had head trauma but was alive for now. She was unconscious and bleeding. Sonya was almost too damaged to even move off of Sarah but with her one functioning arm and a couple of fingers were able to retrieve Sarah's phone and call Weaver.

Weaver was busy working on reviving Ellison again when her phone rang.

"Take over John Henry." Weaver told him as she answered her phone.

"This is Weaver." Figuring if Sarah was calling, it was important. Weaver's facial expressions were as cold as stone.

"What is wrong Ms. Weaver?" John Henry asked. "Ellison is now stabilized, yet you look upset as much as that is not possible."

"We have trouble coming John Henry. Get Mark and John along with Ellison out of the building. We need to flee from this town. Drive to a town named Rockledge. I will call you again later to set up where to meet. If John or Mark resist, knock them out and carry them to the truck. We don't have time to lose here." Weaver explained to John Henry.

Weaver walked down the stairs and headed outside. The building that was assaulted was several blocks away from the office. Weaver quickly marched down the street to get to Sonya and Sarah.

The machine saw Weaver exit the office and chose not to engage her knowing that it was no match for a liquid metal terminator. Instead the machine approached the building that she came out of. He pulled out two more grenades and threw them into the office. Weaver was stunned to hear another building explode. She looked behind her only to see her office building in a raging blaze of fire and smoke. Weaver reached for her phone and called John Henry. She only hoped he was fast enough to get everyone out of the building in time. John Henry picked up his phone.

"Ms. Weaver, our office building has been attacked and now destroyed." He replied to Weaver.

"Yes, John Henry, I can see that. Did you get everyone out in time?" Weaver asked.

"Yes, Ms. Weaver, but the only two people that were in the building were Mark and Mr. Ellison." He replied.

"Where is young John Connor?" Weaver asked curiously.

"I don't know Ms. Weaver, Mark said something about John went after Cameron. I don't think that was a safe thing to do. He might be in danger. Should I go to the power plant and search for him?" John Henry discussed with Weaver.

"No, stick to the original plan. I will go get young Connor." She voiced in disappointment.

She arrived to the building that was in ruined and heard sirens approaching quickly. Weaver walked to the side of the building and saw an unnatural opening. She walked over to it and saw Sonya half covering Sarah heavily damaged and Sarah unconscious on the floor.

"She has a severe concussion and head trauma." Sonya said with her voice in a static like tone.

"Are you able to walk if I get you on your feet?" Weaver asked Sonya.

"No. I am too damaged for anything. I have a small packet of thermite in my pocket to destroy my endoskeleton. You can burn me here before the authorities arrive. I cannot self-terminate." Sonya explained looking at her pocket.

"We have enough losses for the day Sonya, I will not proceed with your request. I will try to rebuild you later." Weaver looked at the machine, shocked that it would be noble enough to die instead of wanting to live.

Weaver walked across the alley and saw an old beat up car that looked like it had seen its better days. Weaver busted the driver's side window out and tired to start the car. The engine took a few moments to start to turn over, but finally was running.

Weaver picked up Sonya and placed her in the passenger side seat and went back for Sarah. She scooped her up noticing the blood on the floor and placed her in the backseat. After looking at her head trauma, Weaver determined that Sarah would survive an hour long car trip.

Weaver put the car in drive and headed to the power plant.

Cameron and the liquid metal at the power plant exchanged hand to hand combat skills for a minute until the liquid metal showed off its true power and started throwing Cameron around like a rag doll. Cameron put up the best fight that she could and tried multiple times to flee the combat scene. As she was tossed to the ground yet again, she saw a large metal iron rod on the ground near the power plant door. She reached for it and got to her feet and swung with all her strength at the liquid metal. The bar sliced it almost in two, but the metal grabbed the bar from Cameron, pulled it out of its abdomen, and bowed its head down while the machine's liquid state repaired itself back to one hundred percent. Cameron was able to use the distraction to flee from the scene, but the liquid metal knew what she was up too. The metal took the iron bar like a spear and threw it at Cameron's back. The machine missed Cameron's back but unfortunately for Cameron the bar hit her legs causing her to fall down.

The liquid metal was getting impatient and tossed Cameron into the concrete wall. Cameron laid against the wall trying to get up but was stopped with the liquid metal's foot on her chest pinning her to the wall.

"You know you fought well for a primitive design. Now call to John. It is time to finish this." The liquid metal told Cameron attempting but not succeeding to get up from the ground.

"I will not call to him. I would die to protect him." Cameron voiced in anger at the machine.

"Such temper for a machine. But you are right about the dying part." The liquid metal sinisterly told Cameron raising the iron bar to the sky.

Cameron's eyes got big as she saw the liquid metal drive the large iron rod between her neck and shoulder plate and coming out the side of her stomach. Cameron felt her power abruptly shut off. Cameron was defeated.

The liquid metal examined Cameron lifeless against the wall and called Dan.

"John didn't come to the power plant, but Cameron did. She is terminated. What do you want me to do with the body?"

"Is she repairable?" Dan asked.

"No her power module is destroyed, a metal bar impaled it."

"Is she safe to transport?" Dan asked.

"If her power supply is pierced, then she would leak radiation. I don't think it is safe to bring her to you." The metal explained.

"Then leave her there. If John didn't die in the blast from the office building, then his own protector will slowly kill him from radiation. That is perfect. Come back home. This is a great day for me." Dan said.

The liquid metal got in the truck and drove back to the office were Dan was staying at.

John finally arrived at the power plant and started looking all around for anyone that was there and most importantly Cameron. John didn't see anyone at all. He drove towards the plant's entrance and his bike hit a rock causing John to lose control and flung him off the bike to the ground.

He looked up in pure horror seeing Cameron sitting by the entrance not moving with a metal rod jammed in her. Not even caring that he just skinned up his arm and leg badly from the bike wreck he limped over to Cameron and fell to his knees.

"Cameron." John said shaking her lifeless body.

There was no response. John burst into tears pulling her lifeless body to him. He rested his head on her good shoulder holding her tight as he sobbed uncontrollably.


	32. John and Jane Doe

**Chapter 32: John and Jane Doe**

John sat on his knees still holding onto Cameron. His blood started to stain the ground beneath him. Unable to let go of Cameron, he was not able to gather himself on what to do next. Minutes had passed with John cradling her, when he saw a car approach. He took Cameron's handgun and pointed it at the car. He lowered it when he saw it was Weaver.

Weaver pulled up beside him and got out of the car. She studied the mess that was Cameron realizing she was terminated.

"We must flee from the city. We have lost too much today. Anymore losses could be the end of our resistance." Weaver said. "We must leave Cameron here John, if she is leaking radiation, then she will kill you. Based on the trajectory of the iron rod, I would say it is strongly possible."

"We are not leaving her." John stated to Weaver. He painfully rose to his feet and gently pulled the metal spear out of Cameron's body.

"I cannot let you take that risk John." Weaver told him.

John threw the blooded iron spear to the ground and what Weaver saw John do even took her for surprise. Using the massive hole from her abdomen John reached in and felt her power supply. It was still cold. John breathed a sigh of relief.

"Before we assaulted the jail to bust my mom out, one of the last things Cameron taught me was to check her power supply and how to know if it was leaking radiation. I was hoping I would never have to do that but she told me that I should know more about her model and how she works. "John said wiping his bloodied hand off on his shirt. "Her power supply is intact. She is coming with us."

"That was an unnecessary risk you just took. Her role is to protect you. She served it. You need to gain control of your emotions young Connor." Weaver bluntly told John.

"Love makes you do stupid shit. It is irrational. That's why I will do whatever it takes for Cameron. It is something you machines will never understand." John retaliated against Weaver.

"She was outmatched, plain and simple. People and machines needs to learn when they are outmatched. It is as simple as that. That is something you humans don't understand." Weaver continued to provoke John.

John picked up Cameron and threw her lifeless arm around his neck. John's pain from his arm and leg were almost unbearable but he fought through it taking Cameron to the van. "We will take the van to get out of here." John explained. "As far as your comment about being outmatched, why don't you process the scenario of my mother, me, and a triple eight destroying your prototype."

Weaver's eyes drew narrow on that comment knowing that her calculations had just been proven wrong. "Fair enough John." She said opening the van's rear hatch. Weaver ripped out the third layer of seats and threw it on the ground. She quickly did the same with the second row of seats. "We only need two seats. We have three very injured and destroyed people to transport." She explained.

"What do you mean three?" John asked.

"Your mother is seriously injured and has head trauma that I can't fix. Sonya is almost in pieces and beyond my expertise of repair. We need to get your mother and Ellison to a hospital on the coast as soon as possible or they may die, Weaver explained.

Weaver walked to the car and carefully got Sarah then proceeded to lay her in the van. John's face looked like a ghost. Everything this day was going wrong for him. Weaver then quickly got the severely injured Sonya and placed her facing Sarah so she could monitor her on the drive to the coast. Weaver took Cameron from John and hastily threw her in the back without any care at all. John was angry at this, but his anger was overridden by his mother's unstable condition.

John got in the van and took a seat. His ailing body was barking at him while his mind was going a hundred miles an hour. Weaver got in the van and started to drive away. She reached for John's gun and took it. She pointed it out of the van and struck the gas tank of the car blowing it up creating a fire ball.

"We can't leave any evidence of our existence so easily behind." Weaver told John who was busy watching his mother and doing whatever he could to help Sonya watch her.

"We will arrive at the hospital in 45 minutes." Weaver said driving the van as fast as she could without getting the attention of the authorities.

The drive took forever for John. He didn't say one word during the whole drive. When they finally got to the hospital Weaver pulled into the parking lot and not the emergency room.

"We need to get her help right now. This is no time for games." John yelled at Weaver.

"I agree Mr. Connor. But we can't have people question us or find out our names. It is a risk we must take." Weaver explained to John.

John Henry pulled up next to them and quickly got out of the car along with Mark.

"Mr. Ellison's condition is getting worse. We must move now." John Henry said.

"Get Sarah out of the van and put her in a car. I will drive them to the emergency room." Weaver said to John Henry.

John Henry carefully got Sarah out of the van and put her in the car. He nodded to Weaver signaling that she was good to go. Weaver got in the car and drove them to the emergency room.

"Come everyone, we need to get to the hotel rooms that Ms. Weaver has acquired for us." John Henry said. Mark and John didn't argue with him knowing that Weaver was right in protecting Sarah and Ellison from their true identity.

Mark walked around the back seat and caught sight of his girlfriend mangled in the back seat.

"I am sorry Mark that I didn't tell you before." Sonya said with her voice still static filled.

Mark bent over and threw up in the parking lot. John limped over to him and tried to comfort him.

"Mark I know this whole situation is completely messed up, but we can't think about it now. Later we can, but not right now. I'm sorry." John told Mark.

John led Mark to the van's passenger door. John hopped in the back looking at Sonya and Cameron. John's mental strength ran out and tears filled his eyes.

Weaver jumped out of the car yelling for help. Emergency room personal quickly rushed out to see what the problem was and found Sarah and Ellison covered in blood in the car.

"There was a car accident a few miles back. Their cars collided and the girl's car caught fire. I didn't have a cell phone so I put them in my car and drove here. I know it was stupid of me, please help them." Weaver frantically told the personal as best as she could to sound like a concerned human being.

The medics quickly got the stretchers and got Sarah and Ellison into the hospital.

"We need operating rooms stat!" one medic said.

"They don't have ID. Use the temporary names of John Doe and Jane Doe for now." A nurse spoke out loud.

During the creation of the mayhem, Weaver got in the car and drove away without anyone caring since everyone was trying to save the lives of the two new hospital patients.

She arrived at the hotel which was only a couple of blocks from the hospital. She reached the joining rooms and walked in to see John slowly running his fingers through Cameron's long brown hair as she laid there lifeless. The once bleach white bed sheets were already ruined with human and synthetic blood. The other queen sized bed had Sonya lying in it. Weaver was confused to not see her still functioning until she saw that her CPU was placed next to her on the reading desk.

"You pulled her chip. Why?" Weaver asked John breaking the silence.

"She was too badly damaged and honestly it looked like she was in pain. Until we fix her, I am doing Mark a favor." John explained to Weaver.

"Does he see it as a favor?" Weaver asked.

"Yes. I do." Mark told Weaver.

"John Henry and I will be discussing what the next possible move we need to make." I will leave you two alone. We will be in the other joined hotel room." Weaver responded to John and Mark.

"Mark I need another favor." John told Mark.

"Last time you asked me for a favor, we got shorted three people, or machines. Whatever they are." Mark replied to John.

"This time will be different. What happened to the office in Orlando?" John asked.

"Well it is up in flames right now. Some machine lobbed some grenades into it." Mark answered John.

"Damnit. What happened to the terminator in the basement?" John asked starting at Mark.

"John Henry was going to leave it there, but after I explained to him that someone would find it, he threw it into the car's trunk." Mark told John.

"You are a smart man Mark. Look we need to get that thing up here. My goal is to hopefully learn how that thing works and I pray that maybe I can use some of its parts to repair Cameron and perhaps Sonya if it is possible. But, in order to do that, I will need a shit ton of tools and such. I also need some pain killers; my leg and arm are killing me." John explained to Mark.

"Your leg is hurt pretty bad, maybe you should have Weaver look at it." Mark said concerned about John.

"No. I will be fine. I need you to get these supplies I wrote down. Here is a Visa Debit card. It should be more than enough to get everything." John told Mark handing him his wallet.

"First thing is first. Let's get that terminator up here before Weaver gets rid of the car since someone may remember it from the hospital." John said.

John painfully got to his feet and hobbled down the hall and elevator with Mark to the car. They used a luggage carrier and used their remaining strength to heave the terminator on the cart and threw a blanket and other clothes items to make it look like everything was normal. The amount of weight on the cart was almost enough to break it, but lucky for John and Mark, it held. They got back to the room and Mark pushed the lifeless assassin terminator on the floor between the beds of Cameron and Sonya.

"I will take this cart back to the lobby then head out to buy the supplies you told me about. I should be back in an hour or two once I figure out where to go in this town." Mark informed John before he walked out the door with the cart.

Weaver walked in the room but didn't see the other terminator on the ground. "Is everything okay in here?" She saw John still by Cameron's side. "Get some rest John. Your body needs it. John Henry and I will figure out the next move and let you know." She continued.

John nodded at Weaver and then she disappeared again to the next room.

John limped to the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. He saw himself covered in dirt and blood. He grabbed some towels and tore them in half. Then he used them to cover his wounds to stop the blood loss. John was quite aware of the danger of his bleeding condition. That was secondary to him.

Staring again at the mirror he spoke to himself. "I will get you back Cameron, I swear my life on it."


	33. It's What's Inside That Counts

**Chapter 33: It's what's inside that Counts**

John was restless as he limped around the hotel room. He reached for his cell phone and sent Mark a text message.

"Mark, call or text me when you are on your way back." – John

John turned on the shower and used a spare washcloth to clean the dust out of his hair and dirt off of his face. He didn't dare take a full shower knowing that he would have to redo all of his temporary bandages and also that it would hurt like a bitch.

After John cleaned himself up he limped around the room and headed outside. His best judgment told him that he should stay in the room and rest, but John wanted to get an update, he wanted to know if his mom and Ellison were still in surgery, or recovering. John needed to know. He needed some kind of answers other than waiting. He knew that he could drive the car but the fact that people might be able recognize the license plate on the car, he decided that he will have to tough out of the pain and just walk it. After ten minutes John made it to the hospital, where any uninjured man would only need about five minutes. He walked in casually and saw a cute blonde haired nurse working on paperwork out in the lobby.

"Hi, Can I bother you for a minute?" John asked the nurse.

"Sure why not?" the nurse replied as she was jotting down notes to the patient's file.

"Well, about two hours ago there was a car wreck, and I witnessed the two drivers ram into each other and I can't get it off my mind. I was about four cars back and kept thinking that could have been me. I just know they were really hurt, and despite this sounding lame, it would help me sleep at night knowing that they both survived it." John explained.

"That's sweet. Really, there aren't a lot of people that care like that anymore." The nurse said now ignoring her paperwork giving John a look over. "Let me go check on the computers to see if I can find anything out. Wait here in the lobby. By the way, my name is Amanda."

"I'm John. Thanks for looking for me." John smiled at the nurse.

Amanda took a few steps backwards flashing a smile at John and turned around to check out the computers. John stood around the lobby and studied all the details and exits. He was still paranoid after everything that happened today, so he might as well be ready for just about anything and everything.

"John, I have good news and bad news for you." Amanda told him.

John started to get pale. He feared for the worst.

"They are alive, but unfortunately, they both slipped into a coma. The gentlemen that came in lost an extreme amount of blood, and the female has a concussion and head trauma. She has too much brain pressure and until it relieves itself, she will be in a coma." Amanda explained. "They are in excellent care here and we are doing everything we can for them."

"Thank you for the updates Amanda, is it possible to visit them?" John asked.

"Of course, but you have to be escorted by a nurse. Although I shouldn't be the one taking you, I can escort you up there, but it will be brief." Amanda told John.

"I promise to be on my best behavior. I just want to see them breathing and I will gladly head home." John smiled at Amanda.

"So you live around here?" Amanda asked John.

"Yeah, I just moved over here actually." John said.

"That's cool, however there isn't too much we young people can do around here, but there are some good spots to grab a drink or two and relax." Amanda informed John.

"Oh really?" John asked. "What are some of the good spots to check out?"

"Well I am a huge beach fan, but I like to do different things around here." Amanda told John.

"I actually have never been to the beach. Maybe when I have time I should do that. It sounds like a fun place to de-stress." John replied to Amanda.

"Wow, you never been to the beach? John you don't know what you are missing!" Amanda responded to John.

They arrived on the third floor and John followed Amanda to the room they both were recovering in. John looked in the room and felt a sense of relief. He could see his mother no longer covered in blood, but she had a ton of bandages on her face and all over her body. John heard a beeping and he looked around to see that it was Amanda's pager.

"I'm getting paged, another emergency. Can you find your way out of here?" Amanda asked John putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah. I'm good." John informed her.

Amanda scribbled something down on a piece of paper and handed it to John. John took the paper and Amanda headed off for her next patient that needed her. John looked at the paper. Call me if you need a drink, Amanda. John looked lower and it had her number on it. John was flattered because she was a really cute girl, but at the same time he felt like an ass practically flirting with another girl while Cameron laid on the bed disabled in his hotel room. John looked around and no one was nearby so he walked into the room to see his mother. He studied her some more and then gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Get well soon mom, I am going to miss my burnt food for a while it looks like." John whispered in her ear.

John looked around to make sure no one was in the hallway and exited the room quietly. As he walked down the hall he saw a medical supply room. Making quick work of his thoughts he opened the door and stole some bandages and disinfectants. He tucked them away under his shirt and left the hospital without being caught. The walk home was painful. His leg was really starting to bother him. John looked down and noticed that his bandages were starting to turn a dull red. Retreating back to his hotel room he saw everything like he left it. There were three dead terminators that were either on the floor or on the bed. John headed to the bathroom and tried to use the disinfectant on his leg but it hurt too much. After splashing it on, he almost blacked out from the pain. It hurt so badly, that he fell to the floor holding his leg. The pain slowly subsided and he wrapped his leg back up with the supplies he stole from the hospital. John got back up on his feet and limped over to Cameron. He sat next to her and ran his hand in her hair. John heard his phone ring and he picked it up.

"John, I have most of your stuff I think and I'm about five minutes out. I tried to call you before but you didn't pick up. I didn't find your requested knife, so I made the choice and got you something close enough." Mark explained to John over the phone.

"Excellent Mark, I will be here waiting for the supplies you bought." John said and hung up the phone.

Minutes past and Mark opened the door to see John sitting on the foot of the bed. He looked like shit.

Mark placed the four bags of items on the ground. "You look like crap man, maybe you should get looked at." Mark informed him.

"Mark," John started to talk as be ripped the bags. He picked up of the knife and extended the blade and sat it next to Cameron. He opened up a power tool and plugged it in. He studied all the different sizes of bolt sizes that he could use with the power tool to help him loosen or tighten bolts. "What I am about to do will be bloody and will probably give you nightmares. I have to remove Cameron's breastplate in order to fix her. You are my friend, but today isn't about John Connor, it is about a shot in hell that I can fix Cameron." John explained.

"I don't think I can stomach this John. I will be at this restaurant I saw on the way back to grab some food and a drink. Scratch that, a lot of drinks. Just remember, in order to fix her, you need to be alive yourself." Mark commented and walked out of the door.

"I know." John muttered to himself as he grabbed the knife and walked over to the enemy terminator. John started to cut around the machines chest. He started at the throat and worked the knife down the side, across the abdomen, back up the other side and to the throat. John felt like he was going to vomit but was able to compose himself. Lucky for John, machines didn't bleed as much as humans would do. He grabbed one corner of the cut flesh and pulled back slowly ripping off the skin from the endoskeleton. John stood up and threw the large chunk of flesh in the trash.

John was frightened at the site of the combat chassis but knew that if he needed to study one, it would be best if the machine was disabled. After looking around he saw that the breastplate was attached by ten large bolts. John grabbed the different sizes of bolt remover heads until he found the one that fit.

"Even in the future they still use metric." John said to himself.

John attached the bolt remover head to the power tool and hoped that it had enough power to remove the bolt. The power tool barely had enough strength to do it, but it worked. John proceeded on to removing the nine other bolts and placed the parts on the ground next to the machine. John reached for the breastplate and it was so heavy he had to stand up to basically slide it off. His finger got caught and he ended up pitching it on the metal plate. John almost let out a scream, but stopped himself since he didn't want Weaver to know what he was doing. He was tired of her negativity.

After sliding off the machine's breastplate, John was busy making notes to himself that he wouldn't need to cut away so much flesh from Cameron when he removes her breastplate. The area was a lot smaller than John thought it would be. John studied the power supply and how the lines went to the skull to feed the chip power. John was in amazement of how small the power supplies were and how only a few wires fed the CPU power. These machines wouldn't be too tough except for the fact that it almost takes a tank mortar to pierce a breastplate.

John washed his hands and got ready to perform the same type of operation on Cameron. However, John decided it would be best to remove her CPU just in case there was a power spark or surge if he touched her power supply. John preceded the operation and placed Cameron's CPU on an anti-static bag on the dresser. Working carefully, he was stunned that Cameron's breastplate was probably only a fourth of the weight that the other machine was.

John started to study Cameron's internal damage. Her power source was intact. There was one wire that leads to her CPU that was completely severed. Cameron's exit wound was all flesh, so she needed no repairs in that area, but her shoulder plate was badly damaged along with some various metal pins.

John cracked his knuckles, exhaled a deep breath, and started to get to work.


	34. One Gets Up, One Goes Down

**Chapter 34: One Gets Up, One Goes Down**

John studied Cameron's undamaged shoulder and then examined her damaged shoulder. Since he wasn't exactly a knowledgeable terminator repairman, he abandoned his idea to fix her shoulder until she was back online. John figured she could instruct him on what to do when he gets her back to an operational state. Regardless, John highly doubted she would have use of that arm until it was repaired. He traced the wire that was severed from her power supply and it ran up and under her chin. He didn't know if the wire ran all the way to the chip board in her head or not, so he knew replacing the cable was not an option. John was careful not to stretch the wire, but the steel rod that terminated her removed about an inch of copper wire that John would have to replace.

John thought about it for a while and limped over to the other terminator. He grabbed the heavy duty wire cutters that Mark bought for him and tested them out on the enemy's power wire. John had to apply a fair amount of force, but he was able to cut it. He studied the wire for minutes noticing the shielding around it looked to be standard materials that they used today. He also examined the copper wire in the same way. Again he thought to himself that it was probably standard stuff, but he didn't want to take any chances. John cut about an inch and a half from the enemy machine and stripped off the rubber shielding and sat it on the bed next to Cameron. He walked back around the bed and took an exacto-knife from the supply bag and carefully cut away Cameron's power line shielding that was damaged or torn from the metal rod. Then John carefully cut a small 1 inch line down the shielding and peeled it back so he could solder the copper wires together and not burn the shielding. He did the same for the other end of the loose wire.

John got a soldering gun out of the supply bag and plugged it in and while he waited for it to heat up, he cut down the spare piece of wire to match the length needed to repair her power line. John limped to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face to calm his nerves and gather himself. He looked in the mirror (at himself), nodded to himself, walked back to Cameron, picked up the wire and grabbed the soldering gun. He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. He pointed the gun at the tip of the wire and the spare piece of wire. After melting the two wires together, he added some solder to ensure that they would stay together. John breathed a sigh of relief as he successfully attached and lengthened one side of Cameron's power wire. John was very precise and made sure to melt a bit of the copper with it to ensure power could flow correctly and that the wire would not be brittle. As John was starting to solder the other side a small drop of the solder hit his finger tip and pain streaked across his nerve endings and straight to John's brain. As he jerked his hand back he dropped the soldering gun on the bed and ran to the bathroom. He ran cold water on his finger trying to relieve the pain but it wasn't working (out) the way he wanted it to. John smelled smoke.

"Shit!" he said as he dashed back in the other room seeing that he almost caught the bed on fire as it was smoking due to the soldering gun being super hot. John grabbed a cup of water and threw it on the bed to stop the smoke and possible fire he could have started. With his finger numb with pain, John used a metal rod from the supply bag to help him hold the wire still while he soldered it. After spending a few minutes working on the wire John was content with the connection. Despite having some rough spots, it looked good. He took a metal file and smoothed down the rough edges. After he had the copper wire smoothed out to his liking he took the shielding he cut away from the other machine and reapplied it to Cameron's new wire. John pulled down the other shielding and used the heat from the solder gun to melt the plastic covers fuseing them together.

John inspected the wire one final time and he felt confident that he repaired her wire the best he could. The only thing left to do now is to test it out by plugging Cameron's chip back into her head and hope for the best.

John felt a little faint as he stood up. Despite feeling dizzy he fought it off and grabbed Cameron's chip and carefully inserted it back into her metal skull. John drew a slight smile after he plugged her chip back in, a small blue glow came from her CPU socket just like the last time he reinserted her chip. John still feeling dizzy sat on the bed next to Cameron. The next two minutes waiting for her to reboot felt like an eternity for him

Staring at Cameron John let out a sigh of relieve when she finally opened her eyes and looked upon John.

"John!" Cameron said softly as she was studying herself. Her HUD was warning her of the various damage that she has. It reported that her port cover was open, breastplate was gone, power line exposed, and her right arm was at zero percent efficiency.

"Are you okay? I did my best repairing your power cord; I hope I didn't damage anything else while I fixed it." John asked her as he remembered what happened to the bed.

"You did great John. My power sensors are reporting my power efficiency at ninety-eight percent. Anything over ninety percent and I am fully operational." Cameron told John. She used her good arm to pull herself up a little bit and noticed that John cut her clothes down the middle and her skin was cut in an "I" pattern so he could remove her breastplate. She looked on the floor and saw her breastplate and bolts to hold it together. Behind John she saw where he attained some of the wire from the dead enemy terminator. She felt saddened to see that Sonya was on the other bed badly damaged and offline. She studied John next and started to account for his paleness and injuries. "John please don't panic, but you need to lie down next to me right now. Your body is on the borderline of going into shock if you don't rest now. Please lay down."

"I have to put you back together, and then you can fix me Cam." John said trying to be tough. He stood up and his dizziness took the best of him and he sat back down on the bed again. "Okay maybe your right." He mumbled as he leaned towards the bed then fainted and collapsed on it.

Cameron carefully used her one good arm to help her get off the bed. She stood up on her own two feet noticing John out cold. There was nothing she could do for him at this time in her current state. She bent over and grabbed her breastplate and headed to the bathroom. She placed her breastplate on the bathroom counter and walked back to the bed and made a few trips back and forth to collect her bolts and saw in one of the sacks a stapler. She checked John and using her one arm pulled him onto the bed and tried to make him comfortable. She smirked at herself and headed to the bathroom.

Cameron had a difficult time trying to get her breastplate to stay in place while she would grab a bolt so she could reattach it. She got frustrated but then realized that she needed to use gravity to her advantage. She put her breastplate on the floor and grabbed two bolts. She laid down on the floor on her back then positioned the breastplate where it needed to be and screwed in two of the bolts in place. Now her breastplate would stay in place while she would screw in the other eight bolts. She stood up and looked in the mirror while she used her one good arm to finish adding the rest of the bolts. She walked back to the bed and grabbed the power tool and finished tightening the bolts. Next she grabbed the stapler and stapled back her flesh so it could heal in a few days and pass as human. She examined herself in the mirror then walked over to John. She started a detail scan of John and learned quickly that he accumulated quite a few injuries.

Cameron needed to get John some medical supplies so she could ease his pain and tend to his wounds. He was stable, but he needed some aid. She knew her shirt was ruined so she carefully took off John's shirt and put it on herself. As she was walking out the door, she ran right into Weaver. Weaver looked like she was taken off guard.

"Cameron, you are active." Weaver said not knowing really what to say.

"Yes, John fixed me." Cameron told Weaver. "I have to go buy some supplies, he is badly injured."

"Are you fully functional?" Weaver asked.

"No, but I am good enough to take care of him, something that you haven't done." Cameron told Weaver.

"He needs to toughen up, he is a pathetic shadow of the leader he should be.' Weaver replied to Cameron. "Maybe his injuries will toughen him up."

"Infection and loss of blood could kill him, not make him stronger." Cameron said walking out the door.

Weaver walked to where John was and realized that he really was more injured then what he appeared to be.

Cameron walked outside and saw that there was a hospital nearby so she started heading that way. A few blocks later she heard her name.

"Cameron?" Mark said sipping on a mixed drink that Cameron determined that it was rum and coke.

"Mark, can you assist me?" Cameron asked.

"I guess, I see John got you back and running." Mark replied.

"Yes, he did. He did a good job, however my right arm is broken. I will need you to help me fix it after I go to the hospital." Cameron explained.

"I'm sure John will help you, besides I about puked when he told me he had to cut you and the other machine open. Cool stuff, but I don't have the stomach for it." Mark told Cameron.

"I would have John do it, but he is unconscious. He has more injuries than what he showed. I need to steal supplies and antibiotics from the hospital. You have to help me fix my arm after, or I won't be effective to protect you or John, let alone to repair Sonya." Cameron told Mark. "Finish your drink, you can help run a distraction while I steal the supplies plus I need detailed information on what happened today. Sonya is busted up and offline, Sarah Connor is missing, Ellison is missing, and John is badly injured."

"I will tell you later, I am a little stressed out. I think I will stay here and have another drink. Good luck with the hospital." Mark told Cameron.

Cameron walked over to Mark as he sat down and took his drink away from him. "No, I think you are coming with me right now." Cameron told Mark and forced her eyes to glow blue.

"You know what; I changed my mind." Mark said as he sat the drink on the table.

"I'll go with you. Not because you of what you just said, because Mark is his own man. Mark decides for himself what the best course of action would be. Mark is a free spirit, he goes where he wants to go when he wants to. Lucky for John and you, my blue eyed friend, Mark will go." Mark replied standing up. Damn he thought to himself, even a female machine gets PMS.

"I knew you would see it my way." Cameron said as they started off to the hospital.


	35. Business Conflicts

**

* * *

Chapter 35: Business Conflicts**

Dan Dyson sat relaxed in an office building with his two feet on the office desk where he signed a new lease earlier that morning. His two terminator minions were working nonstop to move all of his belonging to the new office building in preparation for the business meetings Dan set up later that day.

"I do not understand your logic for trying to buy the land owners off of their own real estate. It would be faster just to terminate them and take it over." The metal machine told Dan.

"That is why I do the thinking metal head. In this time period, murder would result in police investigation, not taking ownership of the land." Dan snapped.

"You have asked three land owners to come in. With the amount of coltan on their lands you would have enough to approximately build four hundred and thirty-two terminators. You still need an assembly line and the construction of that caliber of a factory would take at least a month with the both of us working non-stop." The liquid metal explained to Dan.

"And your point is?" Dan questioned her.

"You need the money to back this type of project up, and also you will need to manufacture processors." She replied back to Dan.

"We can have him tell us all about his chip and what we need to do to make more of them." Dan answered back.

"I do not have detailed files on the information of my CPU. Skynet erases those files when we send out in case of enemy capture." It spoke as it was dragging a table across the room.

"Fine, so you can pull his chip, study it, and then teach this CPU designer I am interviewing how to make them, simple really." Dan said looking at the liquid metal.

"So we just teach him how to make it and that is that?" she asked.

"After he is done you will kill him and his crew. I explained that it's a secret project and no one can leave until they are all done." Dan answered her.

"And how are we to get the money to pay for this?" she replied back again to Dan.

"Are you that dense? You can go rob a bank. First, you go morph into someone else. Second, you walk into a bank and kill everybody you see, third, you take the money, and lastly you drive away. There now we have the money." Dan sarcastically told her.

"Why are we wasting time trying to build more machines? John Connor is dead or dying, his mother is terminated, and his guardian is terminated. My primary objectives are complete. My secondary targets are John's top ten commanders in the war and ensure the progression of Skynet." She told Dan.

"Yes, but why not go all out? Think of it this way, when we get Skynet ready to nuke the world, it will have thousands of machines in the cities to kill the rest of the resistance, they will never have a chance to form. If you just kill his commanders; someone else will just take his or her place. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go buy a new suit for these business deals that I am going to seal later today." Dan said in a cocky manner.

--------------

Cameron and Mark approached the hospital. Mark noticed that if Cameron walked any faster, then they would be at a jogger's pace. Mark held open the door and Cameron marched in immediately.

"Run a distraction at the pharmacy, and I will steal some medicine for John." Cameron instructed Mark.

"I have a better idea." Mark replied to Cameron. "See that female doctor over there carrying a clipboard around to her rooms? I am going to accidently run into her probably causing her to drop everything. Just walk by when I collide into her and lift her prescription pad. That way if John needs something else, you don't have to go steal again and probably get arrested." He continued.

"Thank you for explaining. Your plan is better than mine. Please proceed." Cameron told him.

"I am so going to hell for this." he sighed as he was walking towards the doctor. He looked back at Cameron and felt something hard smack him across the face knocking him off his feet. He looked up from the floor and realized the doctor had flung her arm around trying to point in the general direction on where the pharmacy was to her patient. Unfortunately for Mark, his face happened to be in the way.

"Are you alright?" the doctor asked placing her clipboard on the floor and started to tend to Mark laid out on the floor.

"Wow, I usually don't get slapped like that until after I try to do some cheesy moves on a date!" Mark said trying to joke his way out of the pain.

"I am so sorry. Let me make sure you are okay. I hope you don't think I did this on purpose!" the doctor said to Mark. She reached out to Mark helping him up while Cameron carefully lifted her prescription pad out of her pocket and walked down the hall.

"Oh my. Let me get you an ice pack. I think that is going to swell up on you. I am so sorry." She said as she walked away to the supply room.

Cameron walked in an empty waiting room and wrote a few prescriptions for infections and pain killers. She studied the impressions on the paper and copied them exactly to forge her signature. She reached for the door knob with her bad arm and stopped to stare at her shoulder. Cameron looked at the ground, and then used her good arm to open the door. She walked up to the pharmacy and the plan worked. Fifteen minutes later the pharmacist handed her the drugs and Cameron paid for them. It was about the same time Mark met up with her holding an ice pack over his newly earned black eye.

"Go ahead, laugh it up." Mark said. "Did you get the medications for John?"

"Yes, your plan was great. I need you to take these pills back to the house. I need to go and repair my shoulder. The lack of efficiency in my arm is posing problems for me." Cameron explained to Mark.

Mark took the pills and headed back to the apartment. When he got to the room, he found John lying down on the bed face first and not awake. The carnage of the room didn't appeal to Mark so he put the pills in the bathroom and went back outside to grab the drink he was enjoying before Cameron rudely interrupted him.

Cameron walked the city of Rockledge and started to do a standard patrol around the hotel and worked her way around the surrounding blocks. It was night time now and she headed to an auto body repair shop she saw nearby. Carefully studying the building, she punched through the door effectively breaking in knowing that the building didn't have much security.

She studied the tools around and found an arch welder, soldering gun, a mallet hammer, and various other things she deemed useable for her repair. She checked the building again for witnesses for what she was about to do. No one was around so she pulled the switchblade from her pants pocket with her good hand and put it on the counter. She pulled off her top and with her good hand holding the knife she made a rectangular cut on her right shoulder. She peeled away the sizable portion of flesh and laid it down on a plastic bag. She grabbed a torque wrench and slowly removed the bolts holding her damaged shoulder plate. Finally after thirty minutes she was able to take the plate off. Since the plate was pierced downward, it was one of the two causes of why her arm was immobilized. Scanning deeper she found a metal pin that was bent and out of place on one side, thus causing the rest of her problems with her arm. With her good hand she sat the metal pin on the table and used a mounted brace and a hammer to straighten the pin back out. After trying to reinstall her shoulder pin herself multiple times with no success, she used a pair of pliers and was able to set the pin in place. Now, she was able to reinstall the pin and her arm was back to a useful ninety eight percent.

She rotated her arm testing it vigorously to ensure that she didn't miss anything. For a strength test she walked over to an old car that was being refinished and was able to pick up the car with her once damaged arm. This completed her various tests and she was quite glad to have it back. She lit the blow torch that she found on the ground and started to heat up her shoulder plate on the shops work bench. The metal became red hot and Cameron worked the damaged plate like a blacksmith would and hammered the metal back in place, then pounded the plate to smooth out all the bumps. It would never be perfect again, but anything close to it would be more than satisfactory to Cameron at this point. Hours past and she completed her goal. It wouldn't be as good as new, but it would be able to protect her arm without problems. She took a bottle of water and cooled the hot metal off which released a steam filled hiss into the air. Using both of her arms, it was much quicker and easier to reinstall her shoulder plate to her arm. She was pleased with her work and carefully placed the chunk of flesh from the plastic sack back on her arm. To prevent excess bleeding and hold the skin she cauterized it using the blow torch that was still hot from previous use on her shoulder plate. The smell of burnt flesh filled her sensors and alerted her of cosmetic damage. She put her shirt back on and gathered everything that could be traceable to her and burned it outside in an alley garbage can.

As she watched it burn she heard someone approach her from behind. This person was quiet and more than likely undetectable for a human, but Cameron heard him hundreds of feet away.

She chose to ignore the man and confirmed that her biological blood was destroyed in the fire. She could now tend to John. She turned around only to be greeted by a nine millimeter gun pointed at her chest.

"Give me your money bitch or else." The masked man told her.

"Or else what?" Cameron asked slowly tilting her head to the side.

"Or else I kill you where you stand." The man said as he cocked the hammer of the gun.

"That gun will be ineffective against me. Run away now, and I will let you live. Stay and you will die." Cameron spoke to the man.

The man started laughing, "You have guts little lady, I will give you that. But I am the one with the gun and you are the one with nothing".

"Prove me wrong." Cameron said as the man squeezed the trigger and a metal round hit Cameron's chest and the bullet dropped to the ground. "I told you, that weapon is ineffective against me." She grabbed his gun, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger. Before the man could react, Cameron shot him in the chest and dropped him to the cold asphalt leaving a metal souvenir in his chest. "However this gun is highly effective against you." She said to the corpse. She picked him up and threw the robber in the burning barrel and watched him go up in a blaze as she walked away and headed back to John to tend to him.


	36. What's Yours Is Mine

**Chapter 36: What's Yours is Mine**

"Dan, Mr. Jackson is here to see you." His girlfriend informed him.

"About damn time, he is four minutes late, and I am ready to finish this last land acquisition. Let's get this over with, send him in." Dan told her leaning back in his chair with his feet on the meeting table.

She walked out the door and about two minutes later she returned with Mr. Jackson. He was dressed in a black suit and carried a briefcase. He looked at Dan and didn't look pleased to see him. He expected a professional meeting to sell his land, not a teenager dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with his feet up.

"Okay, let's make this simple and quick. I will give you a hundred thousand dollars for you to sell me your land and leave by the weekend." Dan told Mr. Jackson.

"You must be a comedian, a hundred thousand dollars for my land? Not a chance, I see I have wasted my time." Mr. Jackson said starting to stand up so he could leave.

"Okay fine, I am feeling generous today, hundred and twenty thousand." Dan countered him.

"My land is worth at least double that, and I have documents and papers to show it." He said opening his briefcase and sliding the documents to Dan.

"I really don't care about your personal opinion on what you think the price should be, Mr. Jackson; you just need to sign over the land. If I were you I would just sign the deed over, take the money, and leave." Dan told Mr. Jackson standing up and sitting on the table near Mr. Jackson.

"Maybe your parents didn't teach you manners or real estate. Maybe your bully tactics worked in school, but it won't work in the real world." Mr. Jackson scolded Dan.

"Parents? My dad died when I was a boy. If you talk about them again, you will join him. Also for your information, I believe bullying works quite well. I suggest you realize that quickly and take the deal, before something quite unfortunate happens to you." Dan replied to him.

"I am done with this conversation and I am leaving. You are lucky I don't call the police on you right now." Mr. Jackson told him giving a bitter stare at his direction.

"No you aren't leaving, because I don't have my land yet. I am not a patient man, Mr. Jackson." Dan responded back to him. His girlfriend got in the way between the door and Mr. Jackson so he couldn't leave. "Here is my final offer and I am doing this because I am feeling pathetically nice today. I offer you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and your life."

"First off boy, your father should have taught you some manners. Never threaten someone that could really mess you up. So on that note, Go to hell and have a great day." Mr. Jackson informed him.

"You first Mr. Jackson. Honey, do what you do best." Dan said sitting back down.

Mr. Jackson watched in terror as the liquid metal cloned his every look. He felt something pierce him and a warm liquid run down his arm. As he looked down he found both her hands through his chest. Speechless, he drew his last breath and died. The metal released her blades from him and he fell to the ground.

"Some people just don't learn." Dan said out loud. "Honey if you don't mind could you please get all the paperwork taken care of. I think I am going to go to DisneyWorld and take the rest of the day off. All of these business talks this week has worn me out."

"What about the body?" she asked shifting back to her normal form.

"Wait for about two days when we have the title, then you can take the corpse and drive into a semi or a train. Make it look like an accident or something. Cops won't know a thing that way." Dan said grabbing his keys and wallet heading out the door. His non-metal guardian followed right behind him.

---------

Cameron spent the whole night cleaning and stitching John's leg and arm. John was out cold due to the medicine she injected him with. She knew that he would only resist the stitching or try to be tough, but this was just easier on him and her. She hated seeing John upset or in pain, despite her being a machine. Morning came all too quickly as it was time for her to do her standard patrol. She left leaving John sleeping in the room with the two offline machines.

As she came up the stairs she ran into Weaver.

"Cameron, get everyone ready to leave this afternoon. I found a house on the beach that was for rent. It will be more than adequate for our needs. I am meeting the owner now to sign the paperwork. It is fully furnished. Here is the address." Weaver explained to Cameron handing her the keys to the car and address on a piece of paper.

"I think we should run this by John first. He won't like being that far away from his mother in the hospital. Plus I won't be able to patrol both here and the hospital at night." Cameron spoke.

"It is only a fifteen minute drive from here. He will get over it. I think you need to readjust your priorities, Cameron." Weaver told her.

"What is that suppose to mean?" Cameron asked not liking the tone of Weavers statement to her.

"Are you John's protector or John's bitch? I for one am here for the survival of Judgment Day and defeat Skynet, not cater to John's every want and demand." Weaver bashed Cameron as she walked away.

Cameron was so upset with Weaver, when she entered the room she broke the doorknob off the door.

Mark was there watching television in the room as he saw her walking in with the metal in her hands. "Been working out or something Cameron? He said chuckling at his joke.

"Cameron, did Ms. Weaver tell you about the plans for the day?" John Henry asked her.

"Yes." Cameron answered him in a short manner.

"Excellent, I will let you take John and Mark in the car. I will deal with the two other machines." John Henry said.

"What do you mean deal with them?" Mark asked.

"Ms. Weaver told me to clean the room and burn the bodies. Was this not what you had in mind?" John Henry asked.

"No, John Henry. You need to transport the two offline machines to the new house. I want you to override Ms. Weaver's command." Cameron told him.

"I am sorry Cameron, but I was told to ignore your commands and follow my instructions." John Henry informed her.

"Fine, but you will not refuse my orders John Henry." John said in a weak voice limping badly into the living room. Cameron rushed over to him helping him stand up so he wouldn't put too much pressure on his leg and stitches.

"Are you back to one hundred percent Cameron? I have been thinking about you." John faintly talked to her.

"Yes John, I am fine. I have you on a lot of drugs for the pain so you will be really tired and numb. We can talk later about everything." Cameron smiled at him being glad to see he was awake and concerned about her.

"I am really sorry John, but Weaver told me." John Henry started to reply to John before he was cut off.

"John Henry, I know what she said, but as John Connor, I will overrule her decision. The two other machines come with us. I will leave you with the task of transportation and sanitizing the room." John replied in a respectful manner to John Henry.

"And if I don't proceed with your request?" John Henry answered John in a way that a typical defiant teenager would his elders.

"Then I promise you John Henry that you won't be mobile anymore." John told him.

"I don't think you will terminate me, Mr. Connor." John Henry responded to him.

"Terminate you John Henry? No, I would never do that to you John Henry. I need your help for the war; however, I don't need you to be mobile for that. I will gladly rip parts off your endoskeleton for repairs on Cameron or others later. You are perfectly useful to me permanently seated in a chair just like you were prior to having Cameron's chip." John explained to John Henry. Judging by the look on John Henry's face, he figured that thought finally processed into his chip.

"You are right Mr. Connor. I apologize. Using both machines for spare parts makes sense to me for repairs. Perhaps Ms. Weaver didn't think about that idea. I will transport them to the garage of the new house." John Henry replied to him as he got up so he could start scrubbing the room down.

John whispered something into Cameron's ear and she looked at him and nodded.

"I will go ahead and grab our stuff, and then we can head out." Mark said. "Can we get some food on the way, I am starving."

"Same here." John said. "We should stop by the hospital too."

"I agree with the food, but not the hospital. You are too injured John and if they see you limp around and look all banged up the way you are now, then they might force you to stay there." I cannot protect you from there. The amount of people traffic is too much for me to handle." Cameron told John.

"Yeah but," John started to say.

"Tomorrow John. I checked on her early this morning. Sarah and Mr. Ellison are both in a coma and the probablility of one of them waking up in the next twenty four hours is about one percent." Cameron cut off John.

John didn't look thrilled that she told him no, but looking at himself he realized that she was right. "Fine he said."

"Owned!" Mark said rubbing it into John as he walked back carrying about three bags of supplies down to the car.

Cameron looked at John and asked, "Are you able to make it down to the car without assistance?"

"Yeah I should be good." John told her.

Cameron walked in the bedroom and grabbed the two CPU's and put them in her pocket. She collected the rest of the supplies and left John Henry with the bloody mess and two offline machines.

Cameron walked outside to Mark and John standing around the car waiting for her to unlock the doors. She unlocked the trunk and doors and Mark started to throw the supplies in the trunk. Cameron did the same and shut the trunk door. Cameron opened the back seat for John so he could extend his leg out in the backseat.

"I need something first." John told Cameron.

Cameron looked around wondering what it was. Everything seemed to be in order. She realized what it was when John placed one of his fingers gently on Cameron's lips. She smiled at John and happily accepted his request. As they kissed Mark stared at them.

"Get a room!" he said splashing a bit of water at them from his water bottle.

John and Cameron were not phased by the water assault and finished their kiss.

"I dreamt about doing that ever since I lost you at the power plant the other day." John grinned at her then getting in the car.

Cameron blushed a little bit and got in the car and they drove off to their new home.

John Henry picked up the two offline machines and without being detected crammed them into the trunk of another car Ms. Weaver rented for him. He walked back up to the room with a bottle of bleach and cleaning supplies. He walked in to the bedroom and stuffed the bed sheets into a plastic bag. They were beyond cleaning and he would just burn them later. John Henry grabbed a towel and soaked it in bleach and started to get to work.


	37. Long Distance Care

**Chapter 37: Long Distance Care**

"So I could really go for a chicken sandwich." Mark said as he reached for the radio in the car. He turned on a country music station and turned up the volume.

"Playing music at that decimal level could damage your hearing if listened to over two hours." Cameron told Mark as she turned the volume down.

"Awesome, I will turn it down in about an hour." Mark tuned the volume back to his liking.

"I don't understand why you would want to hear it louder than normal optimal levels. Doesn't that give you a headache?" Cameron asked.

"Not really, I usually only get headaches when bullets are flying past my ass." Mark joked with Cameron.

Cameron pulled into the parking lot and asked John want he wanted.

"I'm good with a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries." John said groggy in the back seat.

Mark watched Cameron walk inside the building to get them something to eat.

"John, does Cameron seem a little different lately?" Mark asked.

"She seems like Cameron. Why do you ask?" John turned the conversation back to Mark.

"Well, no offense, but she seems pissed off lately." Mark tried to choose his words carefully.

John sort of smiled to himself. "What did you do?" he asked.

"Nothing! I swear!" Mark told John.

"Well Mark if you didn't do anything I wouldn't worry about it. She might be a little mad that she was pretty much killed by a terminator the other day. I am not really sure what goes through her CPU." John answered Mark.

Mark was going to talk to John more about it, but Cameron opened the door carrying a big sack of great smelling food.

"Here, I will let you hold the bag." Cameron told Mark as she handed it to him.

Mark tried to be sneaky and eat some fries on the way home but he felt the disapproving stare coming from Cameron, so he closed the bag and behaved himself.

They arrived at the house and it looked luxurious. Weaver walked out of the house and met Cameron, John and Mark.

"I have completed all the necessary paperwork for this house, it is officially ours." Weaver informed them. "There are 4 bedrooms and a grand office. John Henry will stay in the office with me. You can figure out the bedroom assignments among yourselves.

Mark got out of the car and looked around. "This is a nice place. Oh shit, is that a pool?" he asked.

"Yes, it is." Weaver replied.

"Nice, this is like a vacation house I stayed in a few years back on spring break." Mark explained.

"What are the best exit strategies and patrol information in case of an attack?" Cameron asked Weaver.

"I'm sure you can figure that out yourself Cameron." Weaver told her condescendingly.

John overheard the conversation and didn't like Weaver's tone of voice to Cameron.

"I must leave for I have other matters at hand that need my full attention. Please try to maintain order here Cameron. Moving around and these random surprises are getting rather tedious."

"You acting like a bitch to Cameron is also tedious." John said looking at Weaver getting out of the car.

Weaver glanced at John limping his way towards her.

"Last time I checked we are a team. Teams communicate with each other. If you have a problem or something you would like to get off your liquid metal chest Weaver, now is the time to say it. If not, then for someone as advanced as you, I would take a guess that even you understand respect. We will lose this war divided. Dan is out there gaining strength in numbers and we are all here licking our wounds and trying to recover. Bickering among each other will not win the war for us." John explained to Weaver and everyone else that was listening.

"Fine." Weaver spoke. "I just finished the paperwork about fifteen minutes ago, I have not done a patrol route yet and only saw about half of the house so my analysis is incomplete. I shall be back later tonight Mr. Connor." She continued and walked off to her vehicle and took off.

Cameron popped the trunk and started to unload the car while Mark and John headed in the house. Mark quickly claimed the room with the bathroom and door headed to the pool. John walked in and explored the house a little bit before his leg started to bother him. He picked a room with a full bathroom inside the room.

"I see you picked a room for yourself." Cameron told John.

"I picked a room for us, yes." John replied to her. "I figured Ellison would have a room, my mom would have her own room, Mark needs his space, which only leaves one room left. Besides, it's a new, big scary house. I would assume that someone needs to protect me while I sleep." John explained to Cameron.

Cameron returned the smile and put down a few bags in John's room. "I need to change your bandages and check your injuries." She told John

"That's fine, but after you get done I am going to go to the hospital." John informed Cameron.

"Only if I go with you," Cameron demanded.

"That's fine, you can drive then." John told her.

"Deal." Cameron said as she removed and tossed John's old bloodied bandages on the floor. She analyzed his arm and leg and treated his injuries accordingly. After she was done she pulled out an injector kit from her pocket and injected John with antibiotics.

"I want to go on a patrol route before we go see your mom, it will only be about an hour." Cameron told John.

"That's fine, I am pretty tired and I could use a nap." John informed Cameron.

She walked outside to see John Henry pulling into the driveway.

"Hello Cameron. The hotel has been cleaned. Where should I place the two disabled machines?" John Henry asked.

"Hello John Henry, please put the machines in the garage. Do you happen to have detail files on Sonya's model number. Her model reminds me a lot of the terminator I fought in the doctors office and elevator. John called it a pretzel terminator." Cameron explained to John Henry.

"I will have to look for a model number on her Cameron. I am afraid I do not know much about that series." John Henry replied to Cameron.

"Thank you. I am going on a patrol route and then taking John to see his mother in the hospital. Do you mind keeping an eye on things while I am gone?" Cameron asked politely.

"That sounds fine to me. When you and John take off, I will have Mark accompany me to the store to buy food and other things for the house." He said.

John Henry popped the trunk and grabbed the disabled machines and carried them to the garage. Cameron took off and started her patrol. She noticed that most of the area was very secure and the only potential hazard was a gas station nearby that its waste products did drain towards their house, but nothing that was a real danger. She scanned the house and it was in good shape. Everything seemed to be in order. She noticed Mark floating in the pool.

"Can you float?" Mark asked hearing Cameron walking around the house.

"No." Cameron answered him shortly.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, I just am curious. I weigh more than you and I can float." Mark told Cameron.

"Yes, but your bones hold some air, as mine do not. Plus I don't have the lung capacity normal humans do and I do not have the fat levels that you have, so therefore I would sink.

"Nice, so in short. I'm fat." Mark joked with Cameron.

Cameron didn't reply to that as she knew it was probably not really a question. She walked inside to see John in his room watching television.

"How was your nap?" Cameron asked.

"Didn't really sleep, just sort of laid here watching some television." John answered her.

"Are you in pain? I could adjust your medication." Cameron said to John.

"No, I am fine, just my mind keeps spinning its wheels after what happened recently." John explained to her. He slowly got off the bed and walked up to Cameron. "But I am really glad you're back and okay." He continued as he planted a big kiss on her lips. "Are you ready to go to the hospital?" John asked.

"Yes, I am ready to go." She said. "I bought you something too when I was on my patrol."

"Where is it? What is it?" John told her.

"Well it is in my back pants pocket." Cameron said to John.

John without thinking slid his hand in Cameron's back pants pocket.

"Are you grabbing my ass?" Cameron told John teasing him.

John blushed. "Well." He started to speak as he grabbed the object and retreated his hand to a more appropriate position.

"Well, I guess since I like you I won't slap you for it." Cameron smiled at John. "How do you like your present I got you?"

"A webcam? What are we going to use it for?" John asked.

"I figured we could install it at the hospital so we could monitor your mother and Mr. Ellison from here. That way we could know what's going on at all times. The webcam is all wireless and I can install it when we get there." Cameron explained.

"That's awesome! Thanks Cam, that's really cool." John told her and gave her another kiss on the lips.

They both left the house and about fifteen minutes later got to the hospital. John grabbed some magazines out of the car and headed in the hospital.

"What are the magazines for John?" Cameron asked.

"You will see soon enough." John answered her.

John walked up to the receptionist's desk and waited for her to get off the phone.

"Hi, how can I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"Hi, my name is John and this is Cameron. I am working on a college study and I was wondering if it would be okay if I worked my study here." John explained.

"And what exactly is this study?" the receptionist questioned him.

"Well, basically we read about four or five current event articles to coma patients and when they wake up we see if they remember any of them. It is basically a study to see if verbal communication helps with coma patients." John explained.

"That sounds like a worthwhile study. Let me ask a doctor to make sure that they are okay with that. Please wait here in the lobby while I ask." The receptionist told him.

After about twenty minutes a doctor came out and introduced himself to John and Cameron.

"Hi I am Dr. Johnson. I heard you two wanted to do a study." He told John.

"Yes, sir." John said.

"Well that sounds great to me under one condition." Dr. Johnson told John. "No raunchy articles or war articles. Keep it clean and current. I would also love to hear about the results." He continued.

"Sure thing." John agreed with his terms.

The doctor lead them upstairs and pointed out 4 rooms to them. He explained each of the patient's conditions and how long they have been in a coma state. After he showed John and Cameron around he took off leaving John with his card in case he had any questions.

John headed towards his mother's room and saw her lying there on the bed. He walked up to her and gave her a half of a hug. Cameron started getting to work and installed the webcam on top of the room's television. With the angle of the camera, she could monitor both Sarah and Ellison and the vital signs. She plugged it in on the power strip along with the television. She jumped down and walked up to John.

"Are you okay?" Cameron asked.

John's eyes were misty and didn't say anything. As he was about to reply to Cameron, he heard screaming coming from outside the room.

"She has a gun!" someone screamed from the hallway.


	38. Attitudes

**Chapter 38: Attitudes**

Cameron looked out the small window in the door to evaluate the situation. Looking down the hallway she saw a young girl in her early twenties walking towards them in a nightgown. She carried a gun in one hand and the other hand was wiping the tears from her face. Cameron scanned her. Her HUD reported her as human.

"She is human. My best guess would be that she is traumatized or suicidal. Either way she is a threat since she has a gun." Cameron explained to John.

"We need to help her then." John told Cameron.

"In thirty seconds she will be walking past our room I could easily kick the door out and end the threat." Cameron said.

"That is one idea, but the idea that we are going to do is this. After she walks past us, you will go out in the hall and I will be right behind you. We will talk her down." John replied.

"That is risky. Is there a reason of why you want to talk her down?" Cameron asked.

"It is the right thing to do and I don't want to relive another flashback of the suicidal school girl moment again. I should have saved her( too), but you stopped me." John answered her question.

"Sorry." Cameron softly replied.

"No, you were right at the time. You knew what was best and I shouldn't have blamed you. However, this time I want to make things right." John said to Cameron with a warm smile on his face.

Cameron nodded at John and walked out of the room and into the hallway. The noise caught the young girl's attention and she turned (out) and pointed the gun at Cameron.

Cameron just stood there and waited for John. He quickly walked out the door and stood behind Cameron using her as a shield.

"What is your name?" John asked the young girl.

"Why do you care? Leave me alone or I will kill you." The young girl responded back to John.

"Well this is starting off great." John mumbled to himself. "I care because you have a gun, and because good people generally care. So judging by you shaking the gun and your tears, I would guess something is wrong, and I want to help you." John explained to the girl.

"You can't help me. I will never be able to move on from this. I am going to kill him." The girl said to John.

"Kill who? What happened?" John asked.

"He did this to me!" she said as she moved her hair to the side.

John noticed her black eye, cuts, and scrapes on her body. He feared the worst of what happened to her. "Start from the beginning, and tell me everything.

She walked towards Cameron and John. "Well, it all started."

"Wait, one last thing. The whole gun thing is making me nervous. You mind?" John asked.

The girl smirked and looked at the gun. She tossed it to the floor. John walked around Cameron and towards the girl who started crying. "Tell me everything." John said.

"Why do you care? It didn't happen to you. Not even the doctors care about me, they just want to drug me and run tests on me." she said sniffling.

"My name is John. Maybe your situation doesn't matter to some people, but you know what? I want to know. I want to hear your story." John said.

The girl looked at John. "My name is Rachel. I was walking home from a party the other night and about a block away from my car, some boy grabbed me and took advantage of me." She started to explain.

John continued to listen to her horror story and every last traumatizing detail that happened. As Rachel was talking John noticed Cameron picked up the gun from the floor and tucked it away in her jeans.

"He told me if I rat him out he would kill me and my friends. I don't know what to do." Rachel told John crying in his arms. "He told me if I wanted to have fun again he would be at the club downtown tonight." She rattled off more details about the man and his name but John was distracted by the security guard running down the hall.

"Everyone on the ground now and put your hands up!" one of the guards yelled at the three of them.

John listened and turned around with his hands held in the air.

"What is the problem sir? You are scaring the shit out of me." John asked.

"Someone told me this girl had a gun and was waving it around threatening people." The guard said half winded from his short run pointing at Rachel.

"Her? Sir, that's crazy, she's in a gown. Where would she keep the gun? We have been here talking from a while now. I haven't seen a gun the whole time." John defended Rachel.

The guard stared at John for a while. "So why are you out of your room?" he asked.

"I wanted to go home." Rachel told him.

"Sorry Rachel, but you're in no condition to go home. It's very important that you stay in bed. We have you on a lot of medication with strong side effects. We want the best for you and to get you better." The nurse said as she walked down the hall. "Two of your stitches are undone. Let's get you back to bed and something to eat while I close you up again." The nurse continued.

Rachel walked away from John and headed back to her room with the nurse and guard.

"That was nice of you to cover for her like that." Cameron told John.

"I am tired of good people getting hurt, that's all." John said walking back into his mom's room.

"Yes, but your communication skills and your persuasion skills are progressing faster than I have predicted." Cameron explained to John.

"Perhaps they are, but I still need to figure out one other person." John softly said as he sat in the chair.

"Who?" Cameron asked a bit confused.

"You, Cameron." John told her as she looked stunned. "Something about you has changed. Before you went offline, you acted more human, now you are acting more like a machine.

"I am the same." Cameron quickly replied to John.

"No, but I think I know what is wrong. When you fought the liquid metal you gave it your all, but you alone can't kill it. Trying your hardest, she still destroyed you. Hell, they are liquid metal, almost unkillable. When I killed one it took a triple eight, my mom, me, and a liquid steel vast, and a shit ton of luck. Deep down, you are pissed off that she killed you, scared that you don't know how to kill her or defend me from her, and confused because now that you have human emotions, your CPU can't feed you yes or no answers." John explained to Cameron.

Cameron gave John one of the coldest and deadliest looks he ever seen from her. He knew she was furious and was heading to the door.

"Cameron you are the best thing that has happened to me for a long time, and I don't mean to piss you off, but the time where you think brute force will win is long over, in order to win we have to strike with tactics and precision." John told her as she walked out the door.

John looked out the door and down the hall to see Cameron storming off. "This is the only time I am glad you are in a coma mom, I would never be able to wipe that smile off your face from hearing me tell Cameron that." He turned around and walked back over to his mother and noticed her smiling from ear to ear.

John shook his head. "Oh shit, don't tell me. Mom?" he asked.

"You are right John. I won't be wiping this smile off my face for a while." Sarah said speaking softly. "On a side note, if I didn't feel like I just got ran over by a truck, I would slap you upside the head for risking your life on that girl, but hug you at the same time. You probably saved her life, but remember don't risk your life all the time. You will give you mother gray hair." She continued with the smile still from ear to ear.

John pushed the button for the nurse's assistance.

"What happened since I have been under?" Sarah asked.

John gave his mom a hug and started to catch her up on most of the details. He explained about Sonya and her condition and about Cameron. He also explained where they were now and then was interrupted by the nurse.

"Good Afternoon Sarah. How are you doing today? I want to run a series of tests on you that might take a while."

"Do you have a cafeteria?" John asked. "That way you can run your tests in peace."

"Absolutely, but we have a lot of tests and she will need her rest. I don't want to sound rude, but the tests will be over multiple hours. We want to make sure she doesn't slip back into a coma"

"I understand. How about if I come back tomorrow morning, then you can go over the test results with me" John asked the nurse.

"That would be perfect." The nurse said writing down Sarah's blood pressure and pulse rate.

John hugged his mom one last time before he was heading out.

"John, you were right on what you told her. Give her some space, when she realizes it, she will come around. I'll see you in the morning." Sarah said groggy.

John walked alone to the parking lot. He was surprised to see the car still there. The car was unlocked and the keys were in the driver's seat visor. He looked around, but didn't see Cameron. He let out a loud sigh already starting to miss her and turned on the car and headed home.

John pulled into the driveway and found Mark sitting in the pool.

"Where's Cameron at?" Mark asked.

"She is out and about." John shortly answered Mark.

"You piss her off?" Mark laughed. "I never seen her not attached to your hip."

John raised his middle finger at Mark and grabbed a soda out of the cooler and sat in a lawn chair near the pool.

"I will assume that means yes." Mark continued to laugh.

John let out a long sigh. "Well the good news is, my mom is awake, the bad news is Cameron is pissed off." John started to explain everything that happened today at the hospital.

Nighttime approached and Cameron continued to walk the city alone. She replayed what John told her over a hundred times in her head trying to find fault in what he said, but she knew he was right. She was scared that she can't protect him against the liquid metal. She was scared she would die again and she won't be there to save John. She head music blaring from a nightclub and headed towards it to check it out. It was the same type of music John listened to on the radio. She watched as couples entered the nightclub. She deemed the place interesting enough that perhaps she could get John to take her there and have a night out to have fun and keep him less stressed. She knew now that she needed to correct her own actions around John. She wanted to be more of a girlfriend to John than just a machine guardian to him. She smiled at herself a little bit and decided that it was time to patrol around the house that John and Mark were at and then call it a night. She hoped John would be asleep by then so she didn't have to tell him he was right.


	39. Sonya's Return

**Chapter 39: Sonya's Return**

Cameron arrived at the house and found John in his room asleep. She didn't feel like waking him up and her mind was still computing what he said to her earlier. She was worried that John lost his confidence of her being a protector. She heard noises coming from Mark's room and found out it was just the television he left on. She didn't feel like finding Weaver or John Henry. She wasn't in the mood to listen to them at the moment either. She walked out to the garage and looked upon Sonya's disabled body on the floor. Cameron looked around in the garage and started to clear off the workbench. She picked up Sonya and laid her out on the workbench. Cameron started her scan and was alarmed that Sonya's model number wasn't in her database. Cameron realized she would need Sonya's help to repair her. She targeted Sonya's voice module and discovered the reason why her voice was static. Cameron took her knife and carefully cut away her skin. She took a pair of pliers that was on the workbench and pulled out a metal splinter that was making contact with her voice module. She took Sonya's CPU and reinserted it back into her metal skull.

While Cameron was waiting she continued to remove varies pieces of concrete and metal fragments out of Sonya's body. Cameron was stunned to see Sonya reactivate in only thirty seconds. That was ninety seconds faster than Cameron could reboot.

"I have no detailed records of your model number, but I am almost confident I fixed your voice module." Cameron told Sonya.

"Testing." Sonya said static free. "Yes, you are correct; my voice module is functional again."

"What functionality do you have?" Cameron asked Sonya.

"My legs are completely disabled, I have heavy damage to my chest and right arm, my left arm is severed from power. If you can repair my right hand, I can fix the rest." Sonya said.

"Do you regenerate skin like I do?" Cameron asked.

"Yes, we are almost alike, but I am made with an extremely less dense metal."

"Where is the damage to your arm?" Cameron questioned Sonya.

"I don't know, most of my sensors are damaged or severed. You will have to cut away my skin to search for it." Sonya replied

Cameron without delay took her knife and traced Sonya's elbow and ran her blade to her hand. After carefully removing her skin from her arm, Cameron examined Sonya's machine arm and hand.

"You have two broken metal pins leading to your wrist. I will get the welder and solder them back together." Cameron explained to Sonya.

Sonya nodded at her and waited for Cameron to return. Cameron started to get to work on her arm and hand.

"So why are you here? What is your mission?" Cameron asked Sonya as she got to work on her broken arm.

"I was sent back about the same time when Derek Reese and his men were sent back. Needless to say Derek wanted me gone. He never fully trusted any machine. However I am sure you picked up on his hate for machines too. My mission is to run recon for General Connor. Before I left the future for this time General Connor told me that the war would more than likely be fought earlier with the way Skynet was sending back machines. I was charged to keep watch over his other officers in this time. My other objective was to keep track of Danny Dyson. General Connor figured he would be a target since he was responsible for the T-1000." Sonya explained her story to Cameron.

"So you befriended Mark since Dan had a terminator for a girlfriend?" Cameron asked.

"Yes. That way I could keep track of him. At the time I did not know if his guardians were good or bad. After watching them I didn't like the direction they were going with the technology. That's when I started tracking you and John down so I could get you two involved." Sonya told Cameron.

"How are you so light, when I picked you up, I ran a test and you only weigh eighty-five pounds. Are you made of a different type of metal?" Cameron asked.

"Yes and No. Unlike your endoskeleton which is pure coltan, I am a blend of aluminum and coltan. I can still take bullets, but I am not designed for combat. The building collapsing on top of me almost destroyed me." Sonya explained to Cameron.

Cameron worked on repairing Sonya all night. Sonya and Cameron were able to restore functionality to her right and left arm, but her legs were still offline. Cameron heard noises coming from the inside of the house.

"I'll be back; I am going to get some towels to clean myself up. It looks like a horror movie scene in here.

"Since you repaired my arms and hands, I should be able to repair myself the rest of the way, but it won't be quick. I will need to use some parts from the offline terminator if that is okay." Sonya asked.

"Yes, that is why we kept it." Cameron said.

Cameron walked in the house and to the kitchen. She saw Mark sitting there at the table eating a bowl of cereal.

"And… I just lost my appetite." Mark said pushing away his bowl of cereal. "I didn't know you got a job at Halloween Horror Nights." He sarcastically said.

"Something like that," Cameron replied back to Mark.

"Alrighty then," Mark said. "I think I am going to take a shower and adventure out today. See what all this town has to offer."

"That's fine. Just be back before nightfall. We all need to discuss what our game plan for the next couple of weeks will be." Cameron said.

"Yes, we do Cameron. John Henry and I have been discussing this last night. We will discuss it more today and calculate the best course of action and explain that path tonight. Let's make it at seven tonight." Weaver said. "Until then John Henry and I will be out of town running errands."

"What errands?" Cameron politely asked.

"Don't worry about it Cameron, just make sure you get John and company back to health." Weaver said and walked out the front door along with John Henry.

As John Henry got in the car with Weaver, he stared at Weaver.

"Do you have a question John Henry?" Weaver asked him.

"Yes, it seems like you have a problem with Cameron. Your attitude has changed towards her." John Henry pointed out to her.

"I do not have tolerance for failure, John Henry. She failed and jeopardized your safety." Weaver explained.

"Running multiple combat situations, I don't think her model can kill a liquid metal such as yourself. The fight was impossible to win. It would be like Sarah Connor fighting a triple eight without depleted uranium rounds." John Henry discussed with Weaver.

"Maybe so, John Henry, but I am not tolerant of losing. I came to win, not retreat and lick our wounds." Weaver replied to John Henry.

Back at the house Cameron stepped in the shower and cleaned herself off. She grabbed some of her other clothes and got dressed and started to brush her hair.

"Good Morning," John said walking into the bathroom and started to brush his teeth.

Cameron gave him a long look and finally spoke up. "You were right about last night." she said.

John nodded his head and continued to brush his teeth.

"I am concerned that I won't be able to protect you against a liquid metal machine, let alone a triple eight. Every battle I am in I get damaged or barely escape." Cameron said.

"So we need to break your terminator style of fighting." John said after spitting out his toothpaste.

"I don't understand." Cameron said.

"We both are losing fights left and right it seems. Maybe we need to change our approach when we fight them. But first, I need to heal up and get back into shape. I gained some weight as of late." John explained.

"I can help you work out." Cameron said.

"That sounds good to me. I am going to the hospital this morning to visit my mom if you want to go with me." John asked.

"I would love to if you want me to go; if not I can help Sonya repair herself." Cameron said.

"You have her online again?" John asked sort of surprised.

"Yes, I patrolled the town last night after I left the hospital and found a really cool nightclub I wanted you to take me to but you were sound asleep so I figured I would use my time to repair Sonya and find out her mission here." Cameron explained to John.

"Did you find out anything?" John questioned.

"I haven't gotten the whole story yet, but I think you sent her back to this time to do recon work on your future officers and Dan." Cameron answered John.

"Excellent. Well at least future John seems to be an organized person." John smiled at Cameron.

"Yes, you are very organized in the future." Cameron responded. "How about I stay here and help Sonya so your mom can have your full attention, and then tonight I can have your full attention on our date."

"Sounds like a good plan." John smiled.

Cameron leaned in and gave a quick kiss to John and headed out of the bathroom to let John get ready to see his mom.

John got in the car and drove to the hospital. He walked into his mom's room and noticed the look of misery on his mother's face just laying there bored out of her mind.

"You look so peaceful mom, I bet you never want to leave." John interrupted her peace and quiet.

"Cameron, please slap my son." Sarah said staring at the ceiling.

"She isn't here today. I came alone." John told his mother.

"She is still pissed off from yesterday? Wow, I didn't think a machine could hold such a grudge." Sarah replied to John.

"No, we worked it out, we are going out tonight for a drink plus I think she wanted to get Sonya on her feet again. That or she was just being nice and letting you have all of my attention this morning." John told his mother.

"Wow, is she malfunctioning?" Sarah sarcastically said.

"Mom, be nice to her. I think everyone is a little strained at the moment. We have taken too many injuries and not enough victories. How is Ellison doing?" John asked.

"Still in a coma, the doctors say there is a good chance he will be in a coma for a while." Sarah answered her son.

The nurse came into the room with Sarah's lunch. It didn't look to appetizing to John. It looked like chicken with mashed potatoes, and apple slices.

"So nurse, when can I be released from here?" Sarah asked the nurse.

"We want to run a few more tests on you then if everything checks out okay, we can release you this evening unless you would be more comfortable staying here." The nurse replied to Sarah.

"No, I am more than ready to leave." Sarah answered the nurse.

"I figured as much." The nurse said. "Just remember to take it easy for a week. This means no heavy lifting or heavy exercise, and definitely take it easy, I can't stress that enough." The nurse reminded her.

John sat down next to his mother and turned the television on. He flipped channels until he saw something that caught his eye. It was an image of Dan Dyson with this girlfriend commenting on their new contract with the military. The news piece was brief, but he was awarded a million dollar contract to manufacture the glasses John saw when he first met up with Dan at the meeting. The news clip showed the anchorman interviewing Dan. One comment in particular caught John's and Sarah's attention.

"What is your goal with this contract." The news reporter asked.

"I plan on changing the world." Dan replied.


	40. Home At Last

**Chapter 40: Home At Last**

John sat silently the rest of the day with his mother waiting for her clean bill of health so she could go home. Sarah didn't say much either at first nor did she think of much to say. Seeing Dan on television getting money to further finance his schemes, a machine and her son falling in love, and her headache were all topics of discussion Sarah didn't want to dig into at the moment. The nurse came back to the room around lunch time with a couple of sandwiches and bottles of water. Sarah saw the nurse smile at John and she knew that the nurse liked John; otherwise he wouldn't have gotten a sandwich and bottle of water.

"We are almost done with your results, so by the time you are finished eating, we should know if you can be dismissed or not. Remember if we need to keep you again tonight, it's just as a precaution." The nurse told Sarah and John.

Sarah was actually hungry and finished the stale bread and warm meat sandwich. She noticed that her son never touched his sandwich.

"John it's okay, the sandwich won't kill you, you can eat it." Sarah told John trying to get a rise out of him.

"I am not hungry." John replied. "Did you want it?"

"You aren't hungry? That's a first. You sure you don't have a concussion too?" Sarah sarcastically asked her son.

Sarah expected a witty comeback from her son but he denied her of that.

"Look, if you are worried about Dan, don't be. If you are worried about me, don't be. John, you and I are fighters, we can and will win." Sarah spoke attempting to cheer up her son.

"I just repaired Cameron after she died, Sonya was almost totaled, you and Ellison in a coma, Weaver is starting to be a class act bitch, and now Dan gets money to finance his research and chip design. We almost lost it all this week." John said staring down at the floor.

"You are right, but everyone is alive and well, all we need is Ellison to wake up and we are back to normal. In fact, we probably have the advantage. Dan probably assumes we are all dead. That gives us the edge. We just have to figure out how to use it. You being down is understandable, you giving up is not. John if you start to lose hope in yourself, me, or humanity, I will kick your ass." Sarah smiled at her son patting him on the back of his head.

"Sarah your results are in and you are clear to go home, just remember, nothing crazy and lots of rest for a week. If you have any questions or comments here is my personal number you can reach me at. She walked up to John and handed him a piece of paper with the hospitals number and the nurse's personal number. Have a great day!" the nurse told them and walked back out the door.

"She is so into you John. Please tell me you see that." Sarah asked her son.

"No she wasn't. She was just being nice." John said casually.

"Nice my ass! Oh here is my personal number blah blah blah. You should call her up for coffee." Sarah teased her son.

"I don't think Cameron would like that if call her up for coffee mom." John answered his mother and started to collect her things.

"Did you two get married or something while I was in a coma? You are a young man, dating lots of people is in your blood." Sarah kept pushing John on the idea.

"Maybe so, but you know me mom. I am starting to have a thing for girls that are able to take a few bullets to the chest and kick anyone's ass to defend me." John witfully replied to his mother.

Sarah smiled at her son hoping he was a bit more relaxed and not overly serious. A young man that age shouldn't have to feel the pressure of the world on his shoulders she thought to herself.

John escorted his mother to the car and started driving to the house.

"So anything big I should know about before we get home?" Sarah asked.

"Well Cameron is repairing Sonya in the garage so I am sure that is like a scene from a horror movie in there. They both have been a little up tight since they both died. Weaver is in bitch mode, and Mark is still just Mark." John explained to his mother.

"That sounds about right." Sarah said.

They arrived home and John didn't bother trying to use the garage knowing it would be an ugly sight to see. Sarah carefully got out of the car and followed her son to the door. As they walked in, the house was seemingly empty. Sarah looked around and was shocked the house was fairly clean.

"Your room is the furthest one down the hall." John said as he pointed towards it.

"So I am assuming that one is for me, one for Ellison, one for Mark, and one for you?" Sarah asked.

"That's the plan. I tried to find out where Weaver has Savannah at but she insists that she is safe and at educational training for the next couple of weeks. Outside we have the pool and that's about it other than the mayhem garage." John replied.

Cameron opened the door to the house and walked inside.

"Hi Sarah, I am glad to see you are okay. How are you feeling?" Cameron asked with her jeans and tank top semi stained with blood.

"My head hurts, but I'll be fine. Thanks for asking. I assume you are back to 100%." Sarah asked.

"Yes, John did a great job in repairing me. This blood that is caked on me is Sonya's. The good news is that we managed to get her back to 90%. However her right knee joint is beyond total repair however she can walk, but she has a noticeable limp. She isn't anything to look at right now though." Cameron said.

"Why's that?" Sarah asked.

"I had to cut her deep just to reach the joints; luckily she is a terminator and heals quickly like me." She lifted up her shirt to her belly button and showed Sarah a barely noticeable cut.

"The point of this is?" Sarah started to wonder.

"Two days ago, John cut all the way to my endoskeleton and used staples to hold it together. Now, it is barely a scratch." Cameron explained to Sarah.

"Right, on that note I am going to go lay down. My head is starting to hurt again." Sarah said walking towards her room.

"So, did you see Dan on the television today?" John asked Cameron.

"Yes, it was quite disturbing. We will have to deal with him later. Right now we need to get everyone back to 100%." Cameron said.

John heard noises in the garage and was surprised to see Sonya walk into the house on her own free will. She draped herself in clothing so not even John could see her body or face.

"Glad to have you back Sonya." John told her.

She nodded at John and took off towards the shower.

"I plan on cleaning up the garage in a few minutes, then dismantling the rest of the disabled terminator for storage. Do you have any plans?"

"I think I am going to go for a jog. I need to get back in shape." John said.

"That sounds like an idea. I can join you if you want me to." Cameron said to John.

"Sure, I'll just do some pushups and sit ups for a while, and then when you are done, we can go for a jog. One rule though." John told Cameron.

"This one rule is?" Cameron asked with her head tilted a little to the side.

"No showing off and doing the terminator twenty mile an hour sprint." John told her smiling.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Cameron winked at John. She walked back into the garage and shut the door and got to work.

Moments later Mark walked in the door with his hands full of computer supplies and a couple of laptops.

"I take it you went shopping?" John asked.

"Hell yeah! Dude I got some pretty cool stuff. Maybe now once everything settles down, we can read that CPU we got from that dead machine in the garage." Mark said excitedly.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea actually. Let me know when you think you are going to try and read that chip. Just remember, when I tried it one time, the CPU tried to use the modem and dial up all the other terminators out there with my location. In fact, I think I will just hold on to the chip until it is time to try it." John explained to Mark.

"That works." Mark said. "I will be in my room setting all this stuff up."

John walked into his room and changed into his workout clothes and headed outside. It was a decent day outside, not too hot and not too cold. John figured a little bit of sunshine and fresh air would do him good. He walked out around to the pool and started to do some pushups. He got to about fourteen of them and then was winded. He laid on his back shutting his eyes from the bright fall sunlight beaming at his face. He then tried to work on doing some sit ups. He crunched out about twenty five of them and again was oxygen deprived and back to square one.

Cameron walked up to him and held out her hand. "Let's go for a small jog."

John looked her over and noticed she changed and put her hair into a pony tail. "That was fast."

"Well, I am not completely done yet. The garage is clean but I need to burn about three garbage bags full of things. I can do that tonight in a city dumpster." Cameron told John. "Let's run this way, when I patrolled the town, this seemed like a peaceful path to a park."

They jogged for about five minutes and Cameron could tell John was winded. She slowed down her pace so John could recover. She would purposefully touch John on the arm to read his pulse and blood pressure so she could keep John running at an optimal heart rate. John was smart enough to see what she was doing, but was focused on getting back into shape to make any comments.

They arrived at the park after jogging for a mile and John headed for the park bench to catch his breath.

"You should really stay standing up. Your muscles could cramp up." Cameron said.

"It is a risk I am willing to take. I didn't know I was in this bad of shape." John replied.

"It happens John. Even in the future from time to time your body wasn't at its optimal standard." Cameron stated.

"I don't think we were able to take a jog in the park in the future Cam. So how did I manage to keep my body performing at its highest level?" John asked inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"I helped you with physical activities in the future too." Cameron said smiling at him. "Let's just power walk around the park for a while." She continued.

John got back up and they walked around the park. John was pleased to know that none of the dogs stopped to bark at Cameron like they would have at any other terminator.

"Are you ready to head back?" Cameron asked John.

"Sure, I think I am pretty much wiped out and ready for a shower." John smiled at Cameron. "After all I might have to take a nap so I can be energized about my date tonight with my special girl." He continued.

Cameron smiled at John and they headed back to the house.

Dan Dyson was playing video games in his office on his oversized television. He was playing a shooter game as sound effects were making bullet sounds whiz by him left and right. His phone vibrated and Dan paused the game. He looked as his new text message.

"Interesting." He said out loud to himself.


	41. Memories

**Chapter 41: Memories**

Mark sat in his room working on his new laptop.

"John, are you still here?" Mark yelled out.

John walked in Mark's room formally dressed for his date with Cameron.

"Yeah, but I am going to take off in a few minutes. What's up?" John asked.

"I wanted to see if this laptop is able to access the terminator's CPU. I ripped out the Bluetooth and wireless network card on the laptop, so the CPU can't broadcast anything." Mark explained.

"Yeah sure, I will be right back." John said walking out of Mark's room. He came back a minute later with the CPU.

Mark took the chip from John and started to connect wire contacts to the chip. After several unsuccessful attempts Mark saw Cameron at the door. She was stunning. Cameron wore a matte black dress that went down to her knees and was carrying a black purse.

"Are you ready to go John?" Cameron asked.

"Yeah, we were just trying to hook this CPU up to the laptop and see if Mark could get any information from the chip." John answered Cameron.

Cameron walked over to the boys and examined the laptop and the chip wire contacts. She didn't say anything but made some adjustments. Suddenly Mark now had access to the CPU's memory banks.

"I don't expect you to find much since the memories and such are stored all over the CPU, it is not like a laptop hard drive. However, thank you for trying and seeing what you can find." Cameron told Mark.

"Yeah no problem," Mark said engrossed at looking around the terminator's chip.

Cameron started to walk out the door with John and heard some laughter from Mark.

"What is so funny?" Cameron asked.

"Cameron, I must say you look smoking tonight, but the concealed weapon on your backside, just isn't going to work well on your date tonight." Mark informed her laughing and shaking his head from side to side.

John looked and saw what Mark was talking about.

"Yeah Cam, I don't think the hidden gun will work back there. Maybe we can go without a gun for once?" John smiled at her.

"Okay, I will go to the bathroom and put the gun back." Cameron said.

Mark looked at Cameron and made his hand into a gun like position and acted like he was tucking it away in his shoe, signaling that Cameron could hide the gun in her black high heeled boot.

Cameron looked back at Mark and smiled then put her finger on her lips secretly telling Mark to be quiet. Mark chuckled (at himself) and started to work on the laptop.

Mark heard the door open and close and minutes later heard someone walking about the house.

"Hello?" Mark yelled through the house.

"It's just me, Sarah." Sarah said out loud. I think we are the only two left in the house. I take it John and Cameron took off already?"

"Yeah, they just left a bit ago." Mark told Sarah. "Would you like for me to order a pizza?"

"I am really not that hungry, but go for it." Sarah said. "I am going to take a shower and probably doze off to some television."

Mark called the local pizza company and got to work on the CPU. He started to get frustrated that he couldn't find anything. Finally a little bit of success came Mark's way.

He accessed a memory file that showed the terminator gathering barrels of liquid nitrogen. Just at first glance it looked like the machine had obtained a dozen barrels of it. Mark didn't know really what to make of it. He jotted some notes down on the location of the warehouse, but it was unknown what city it was in.

Mark heard a loud knock on the front door and he sprung up and dashed to the door. Grabbing a twenty dollar bill on the counter he looked through the peephole in the door making sure it was pizza delivery service, then unlocked and opened the door. Mark exchanged the pizza box with the twenty dollar bill and headed back to the bedroom.

Looking around the memory file of the CPU again, Mark found another interesting memory. He was able to watch the terminator's last fight with Cameron before it was disabled. He watched the video a few times and was able to pick up on various techniques it used during the fight. He took notes on how predictable both Cameron and the other machine were. He was also amazed on how well the machine was able to pick up on Cameron's weaknesses and weak spots. Mark was suddenly startled by someone standing in the doorway.

"Where are John and Cameron?" Weaver asked with a not so friendly look on her face.

"I think they went out for some drinks." Mark said trying his best to avoid conversation with Weaver.

"That is not what I advised them to do. I told them that we needed to meet (up) and discuss our plans from here." Weaver said.

"I am sure they will be back shortly. You know John isn't a big night life guy and no offense to Cameron, she isn't exactly the big partier." Mark said with a smile on his face. Not surprisingly to Mark, Weaver didn't think his comment was humorous.

Weaver walked into the kitchen and by the sound of it, was talking to John Henry and Savannah who were playing board games.

Mark resumed his digging on the processer and found detailed files on a person that was zeroed in as a target. Mark read the following off the file.

Primary target is responsible for advanced emotional training on the TOK-715 unit. Mark continued to read that this target is also responsible for the design of Sonya's base model physiological program and functionality programs. Since this information peaked his curiosity, he continued to learn how valuable this person really was in the future to the human resistance. Sure it wasn't something as big as the design of a T-1000 or the development of a T-888, but this person was able to bring morale to the humans by making the machines easier to get along with. It gave the machines a more humanistic style so they weren't so different from the humans themselves. More importantly Mark figured out that the training this person gave to Cameron was able to keep John's overall morale and the human's morale high. Because of the importance of this work, the enemies to mankind deemed this person dangerous and must be destroyed. The target that was to be terminated was Savannah.

Mark was shocked at the ruthlessness of the machines. Even targeting a child wasn't out of their thought processes. Mark heard the door open again and figured it to be John and Cameron. He thought he might as well enjoy the confrontation between the machines.

"You are late." Weaver snapped at the happy couple walking into the house.

"We needed to get away for a little while, have a normal night out but we are here now." John replied blowing off Weaver's sense of annoyance.

"Remember Mr. Connor, I am here to help win this war, not to be on hold while you engage in typical teenage lifestyles. Skynet does not take breaks, nor should we." Weaver explained to John.

"Well, we are pretty much limited on what we can do. I am banged up, Cameron is still mending, Sonya, isn't 100% yet, my mom is still suffering from her attack, and we don't know when Ellison will be back on his feet. Unlike machines, humans need time to recoup and heal." John countered Weaver's disgruntled speech.

"Did I hear Sonya's name? As is Sonya, my girlfriend who was a machine and was smashed by a terminator and crushed under a building?" asked Mark.

"So what would you recommend then?" Weaver asked ignoring Mark's question.

"First we all need to rethink on how to fight the machines. We don't have the future weapons to blow their heads off. Cameron is different this time around and can't win going into close range combat, nor can I. We have to re-train ourselves on how to fight them." John explained. "In fact, I am thinking that Cameron and I might hire a personal trainer to learn how to perform hand to hand combat."

"You think hand to hand combat will kill a machine?" Weaver snared John's idea.

"Not at all, but if we get caught, it could certainly help." John replied. "Everything and everyone has weak points and blind spots. If we can figure those out, Cameron might be able to use her strength to beat a machine one on one without weapons. As for me, maybe it could save my life by allowing me to get away." John spoke his thoughts. "As for you Ms. Weaver, maybe you could scout out and see what Dan is up to. John Henry can stay here and watch Savannah and continue tracking down Skynet targets and other important tasks. If I had to guess, Dan will need to gather coltan, get a factory functional, and gain a client base until he thinks he is ready. We will have to be content in sabotaging him for now until we can fight in strength again."

"Fine, but if we don't make any progress within 14 days, then we go to my plan which is to find and kill Dan Dyson." Weaver told John.

"We will see." John told Weaver.

Weaver hugged Savannah and told the little girl she was going to go for a work meeting and that she would be back later in the week and for her to be a good girl and listen to John Henry.

Weaver walked out the door and John looked at Mark.

"So did you get any data off that chip?" John asked.

"Actually I did. I watched some random tidbits, nothing too major that helps us at the moment." Mark replied. "I must say though, that red shade of lipstick on you John is quite becoming. Also I am still wondering about my girl machine Sonya. I thought you said she was killed."

John took his sleeve and wiped his lips to see what Mark was talking about. He looked a bit shocked.

"Technically it is my lipstick. Cameron said. "To answer your question Mark, yes Sonya was killed, but I pieced her back together. I don't know where she is though, probably wanting to be alone until she passes as human again with all the cuts and gashes on her."

"Well, I guess tonight is full of surprises. My girlfriend is alive and John is wearing lipstick." Mark sarcastically said. "I mean here poor Mark works away and John runs off and plays."

"I am going to go change and go on patrol." Cameron said not knowing what to reply back to Mark with.

"That's cool Cameron. If you don't mind tomorrow, I want to fight you one on one in hand to hand combat. I mean, don't kill me or anything, but I think your fighting routine is systematic. I want to see if you attack the same every time or if I am wrong." Mark told Cameron.

"You studied me fighting?" Cameron cocked her head a little to the left.

"Well the CPU had footage of you and it engaged in a battle and as I was watching, it really looked like you both had a routine of fighting moves you did over and over. I want to see if I can predict your movements. This information may save your life by trying out my ideas." Mark explained to Cameron.

"Also I discovered why the machines hate Savannah so much." Mark said.

"Why's that?" John asked.

"It seems she helped coached Cameron and Sonya's model series to act and mesh with humans in the future." Mark explained.

---------------

"Machine, I have a mission for you." Dan spoke to his metal protector as he was staring out of the window.

The machine approached him and stood silent.

"I want you to make sure there were no survivors when you blew up the office and killed Sarah Connor.

"The probability of them surviving is lower than ten percent." The machine told Dan.

"Then go make it a hundred percent." Dan replied "What is the progress on those properties we acquired?" Dan asked.

"I have started the extraction of coltan; we should have enough of the metal at the end of this week for a prototype." The machine said.

"Excellent." Dan responded.


	42. Testing Theories

**Chapter 42: Testing Theories**

Mark stood outside dressed in running shoes, basketball shorts, and a cut up tee shirt. He put on his boxing head guard and boxing gloves. He jumped around to warm up which triggered John to laugh at him.

"You really sure this is a good idea?" John asked.

"No, it's probably not, but I can see if I am right." Mark told John still jumping around.

Cameron walked outside dressed in workout clothes. She looked at the table outside where there was a face guard and boxing gloves. She put on the boxing gloves and stared at the face guard.

"I don't need the face guard; the force of your punches poses zero risk of damage to my endoskeleton." Cameron explained to Mark.

"Yeah yeah, you're tough, I got it; just wear it in case I am able to land a hit." Mark said.

Cameron looked annoyed but listened to Mark and put the guard on. She approached Mark and stood there. "Do you want me to attack you?" she asked.

"Yes, but don't hit hard. I like having all of my bones in one piece." Mark joked with her.

Cameron went to grab Mark but he was able to counter her by quickly knocking her hands down. She looked shocked that Mark was able to defend against that attack and went for a hook punch to Mark's face. Again Mark was able to deflect her hit and counter with a playful jab of his own. Cameron went for a hook from the other side and Mark was able to duck out of the way. Cameron looked a bit annoyed and Mark pulled her leg out from under her successfully knocking her down on the ground. As Mark stood up in playful celebration Cameron kicked in the air and made slight contact with Mark's face. Mark stood dazed, and then fell over. Cameron quickly got up and stood over Mark and scanned him. Mark laid there with a bloody nose.

"I surrender. You win. I didn't know terminator's kick." Mark said lying on the ground.

"Actually I didn't think I kicked that high in the air. I was attempting to keep you from gaining leverage on me." Cameron said. "However, I am confused on how you knew my first three attack sequences."

"It is only because it seems like all terminators seem to start hand to hand combat by grabbing one another and testing their strength. If that doesn't work, then it seems like you only aim for the head and never the body." Mark explained while wiping a small amount of blood from his nose.

"That is correct; to aim against the chest of a terminator is pointless the area is too armored. The head is the best option." Cameron said.

"True, your chest area is heavily armored, but your legs aren't a bad area to hit, you don't have that much power if you aren't on your feet." Mark told her.

John walked in the house and grabbed a towel and walked back inside. He tossed the towel at Mark. "So basically you think Cameron should aim for a terminator's legs when fighting?"

"Well, maybe not all the time. However, I think it would keep them guessing if she has to fight the same machine twice." Mark explained.

"That is a good point; I will run scenarios against my combat logs later. Thank you for explaining your idea." Cameron said.

"So Cam, now that you are done beating up Mark, you want to go for a run? Watching Mark get his ass kicked has motivated me to go workout." John joked with Mark.

"Oh sure John, chicken out. Don't want to try to spar with Cameron a little bit?" Mark told John standing up.

"I think I am good. Running is good enough for me." John smiled.

"We can run to the park I saw the other night while I was patrolling. It was really nice." Cameron informed John. "Sorry about your nose. I scanned it and nothing is broken, just a minor cut." She continued.

"Maybe I can run a guilt trip on you later and you will feel bad and buy me some ice cream." Mark said.

Mark heard laughing and looked over and it was Sarah.

"Now that would be impressive, trying to guilt trip a terminator, let alone Cameron." Sarah blurted out still laughing. "I called the hospital this morning while you were out here boxing. There are no updates on Ellison yet. He is still in a coma." She continued. "Come inside Mark; let's get you some ice for that nose."

Mark and Sarah walked in the house and John and Cameron took off jogging to the park. As John and Cameron approached the park Cameron noticed John's pace slowed down almost to a trot.

"Is everything okay?" Cameron asked. "You have slowed down your pace considerably."

"It's called being out of shape." John explained dripping with sweat. "You aren't even sweating. That is not even fair."

"No. I am no sweating. My methods of cooling my body are much more efficient than yours. "Cameron started to tell John.

"You should sweat more when exercising, it will help you infiltrate better." John started to say.

Cameron looked at John and tilted her head.

"And it would make me feel better seeing you sweat a little so I don't have to think I am an overweight slob." John continued.

Cameron smiled at John and gave him a peck on the lips. John looked at her and saw that she was starting to sweat.

"You are such a show off." John said smiling at her.

Cameron grinned at him. "If you can run another three miles today, that will be good enough for a cardio workout for your body today that allows for maximum calorie burn and fat consumption."

"So motivational, Cameron." John said still breathing heavily trying to replenish the oxygen in his lungs.

"If you can run another three miles, then we can work out each other's lips later night." Cameron smiled at him.

"Let's go." John proclaimed as he dashed down the trail.

--------------

Dan Dyson walked around in his new warehouse staring at the doors and ceiling. I want to make sure this place is secure. I want you to set up the assembly lines over here in the northeast corner and the stockpiles of coltan in the northwest corner.

"We will have a machine guarding the building at all times. Isn't that enough?" Dan's liquid metal girlfriend asked him.

"So you are going to guard this place then?" Dan asked her.

"No, I would have one of the new triple eights do that." She said.

"That won't be able to stop the other liquid metal bitch." Dan scolded her. "She is still out there and I don't really think she likes me."

"What would you have me do?" she asked.

"I have plan B in my mind, just waiting for my so called bodyguard to get back here." Dan explained. "Speaking of which, I think that is him coming now."

Dan walked outside of the warehouse and saw his other metal protector pull up in a pickup truck with the back full of metal barrels.

"So what did you find out?" Dan asked.

"The building that fell on Sarah Connor and another terminator was surrounded by police but no ambulances or medical staff. Based police officer chat that I was listening into, no bodies have been found. It seems like they got away." The machine reported.

"So you level a building on them and they get away. Are you sure Sarah Connor isn't a terminator?" Dan sarcastically said.

"She is human." The machine replied.

"You think?" Dan jabbed back at the machine. "Get those barrels inside. I want you to hang one barrel above each door and keep the other four along the wall."

"What are inside the barrels?" his girlfriend asked.

"Plan B." Dan told her walking back in the warehouse.

-----------

Mark sat down in the living room and turned on the television. He flipped through all the stations and finally found something that interested him. He saw Sarah starting to walk over.

"Hey, I am going to get out of the house for a little bit and go grocery shopping. Did you have any requests for dinner?" Sarah asked.

"Anything that is edible works with me." Mark quickly replied.

"Fair enough." Sarah replied. "Weaver is out of town so you don't have to worry about her. Savannah might try and steal your television time though. Maybe you can get John Henry to play board game with her." Sarah told Mark.

Sarah walked out of the door and Mark once again started to focus on the action movie that was playing. After about fifteen minutes, he heard little footsteps come closer to him. Without even asking, Mark felt the remote control being grabbed from his hand and the station soon turned to a kid's sing along program.

"Savannah don't you want to play some fun board games with John Henry?" Mark desperately tired to win his television time back.

"No thank you. I want to sing!" the little girl joyfully said while starting to sing along with the television. Mark got up and headed to the kitchen and started to make a peanut butter sandwich.

"Oh look a sing along program!" John Henry said walking into the living room. "Can I join you in singing Savannah?"

"Yes!" the little girl joyfully said.

When the both of them started singing Mark decided to bail on the living room singing contest and go sit out by the pool.

As Mark was enjoying the sunny afternoon of Florida and his sandwich he thought he saw someone enter the garage. Without thinking he jumped up and headed over to spy on the person.

Mark looked into the garage and saw someone in jeans and black hooded sweatshirt standing by the workbench looking for something.

"You shouldn't be so reckless. If I was a robber or terminator, you are defenseless and would be killed." The female voice said.

"Sonya? Is that you?" Mark said walking up to her.

"Please don't get near me. I don't want you to see me yet. I look like a nightmare." Sonya told Mark.

"Okay." Mark told her a little disappointed. "Are you okay?"

"I will be. Cameron was able to repair me to about ninety percent. I am working to improve that while my skin heals." Sonya explained to Mark.

"Sounds fair enough. I miss having you around. I am glad you will be okay soon." Mark said.

"You aren't mad? I never told you I was a machine." Sonya said.

"Nah, I figured you were different." Mark told her.

"How so?" Sonya asked.

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but no normal girls really like to listen to some of my nerdy programming ideas or do half the stuff l like to do. " Mark joked with her.

"I found your ideas interesting. Some of them actually do apply in the future." She commented.

"Nice! So since you need a few more days to heal, how does a movie date sound for Friday night?" Mark asked. "John and Cameron are lame; they just stay in and make out all the time. If they do actually go, John is too busy explaining the movie to her. It sucks!"

"Make it Saturday and it is a deal." Sonya told Mark.

"Sweet!" Mark exclaimed.

"You know the last movie we went to all we did was make out. How is that different than John talking during the whole movie?" Sonya joked with Mark.

"That is completely different. I already seen that movie, I just wanted to go make out with you and not have Term-a-mom Sarah watch us." Mark replied.

"I will see you Saturday." Sonya said looking down at the ground walking past Mark so he couldn't see her. She patted her gloved hand on Mark's chest. "I missed you too."

Mark watched her as she walked away.

"Well, might as well resume my hard task of sitting out by the pool. What a day." Mark said out loud to himself.


	43. Stick To Your Day Job

**Chapter 43: Stick To Your Day Job**

Mark was outside dribbling a basketball. He stopped, turned towards the hoop and took a jump shot. It missed badly.

"Air ball," John said, picking up the ball and tossing it back to Mark.

"Clearly that was nothing but net!" Mark answered John attempting to pull off a believable lie. "Want to shoot some hoops? I am sort of bored and it's really nice out."

"Sure why not." John said rebounding another one of Mark's missed shots. John tossed up a layup but he was too early in the release and missed.

The two of them played for a good half hour before Cameron walked outside to observe the two boys playing. She didn't say anything just studied what (exactly) they were doing. She never had seen the game of basketball in action.

"Hey Cameron," Mark said. "Want to play?"

"I don't know the rules." Cameron replied to Mark.

John was distracted at first by Cameron's appearance. She had a tank top and jean shorts on with some flip flops. "It's not too bad Cam, you just have to dribble the ball if you want to move, and then shoot it so the ball goes in the hoop to score points. Right now we are just shooting around." John explained the best he could.

Mark tossed her the ball and Cameron studied it. She moved the ball around in her hands and mimicked the actions that John did when he was shooting the ball. She didn't jump but shot the ball and 'squish' nothing but net.

"Lucky first shot!" Mark said getting the ball and tossing it back to her. "Try it again!"

Cameron shot again and made it.

"How the heck?" Mark asked himself.

"The concept is simple. All you have to do is realize the weight of the ball, the arc of the shot that you need to make it through the net and measure wind and air resistance." Cameron explained.

"Okay, she's on my team then." Mark laughed.

"Hell no, she's my girlfriend, she is on my team." John countered Mark.

"Actually, I just came to watch, but I need to go run some errands." Cameron told the boys.

"Where to?" John asked. "I think mom has already bought enough groceries for the week."

"Actually, I am going to go buy some weapons." Cameron said.

"John nodded his head wishing he could live a normal life. "Want to go workout after you get back?" John asked.

"Sure." She said and started off for the city on foot.

"So I ran into Sonya yesterday." Mark told John. "She plans on coming home this Saturday. We are planning on catching a movie."

"That's cool. Everything okay with you two? I mean I am sure it is sort of weird." John said.

"When I first found out it was, but now its not. I mean yeah she is a machine, so as long as it's not like a metal tongue or anything. I am good with that. Heck we have been dating for a while, and I enjoy spending time with her. Now that I know she is a machine, I guess now I can talk more geek speak with her." Mark said chuckling.

"So really that's more of a perk for you isn't it?" John said.

"Dude it's hot. I can talk geek, she is smoking, and now I know she can protect me. Yeah, that's hot." Mark answered.

John just smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "Alright man, I need to go do some errands too."

"Scared of my mad basketball skills?" Mark sarcastically asked.

"You know it!" John replied. "No, I saw some gun ranges and repair stores around here and I want to try to get Cameron and myself a job there. I think it would be a great place for information about weapons I could learn about and plus a free place for target practice."

"That sounds cool. Alright man I will see you around." Mark said.

---------------

Weaver investigated the outside of Windrunner Corporation before walking inside. She saw no hidden traps or personnel near the building so she went in. She examined the damage to the structure and knew that the building was a lost cause. She walked up to her office and was curious why there was a piece of paper on her desk. She never uses paper. She walked closer to her desk and saw it was a note.

"Liquid Bitch, you need to join the winning team. Meet me at the listed location below when you come to your senses. Dan." Weaver read the note out loud to herself.

Weaver wadded up the note and tossed it to the floor. The expression on her face showed that she wasn't pleased. She continued to study the building and then marched to her car and drove off.

------------

John walked up to a gun range and went inside.

"How can I help you young man?" an elderly man asked sitting behind the counter.

"Actually sir, I am looking for work for myself and my girlfriend. We are going to join the military and I figured this would be a great place to learn about guns, cleaning them, making bullets, and maybe try my luck on the range some time." John said.

"Well sonny, unfortunately this is just a mom and pop store, so I don't have the money to pay you for your work." The elderly man said. "But, maybe we can work out an agreement."

"I am all ears sir." John said.

"Well, I could teach you and your girlfriend how to clean guns and make your own ammo. I have a lot of guns here that need cleaned but I haven't had the time or energy to do it. For your troubles, if you load your own ammo, you can use it on the range." The elderly man told John.

"That sounds like a fair deal. My name is John and my girlfriend's name is Cameron." John told the man.

"I am Winston. Good to meet you John. How about you and your girlfriend come in tomorrow morning at eight and we can start your training." The man said.

"Sounds great!" John said. "We will be here at eight."

John walked out of the store and the older man resumed reading his magazine. He walked back home and saw Cameron and Sarah looking at the new firearms Cameron acquired from her shopping day.

"Where have you been?" Sarah asked.

"Hi to you too mom," John replied. "I got Cameron and myself a volunteer job a few blocks away. It is a small ammo supply store and its all volunteer work, but if we help him clean and make ammo, he said that we could practice on the range all we want."

"You won't even clean the guns here, but you will for free for someone else Go figure." Sarah commented.

"Well, I decided I needed to increase my knowledge and use it to train in firearms." John answered back at his mother.

"That sounds like a really good idea." Cameron said inspecting one of the guns she bought.

"Oh sure, you would take his side on this." Sarah said. "Fine, but she goes with you at all times."

"Always," John replied.

"Are you ready to go for a run?" Cameron asked.

"Sure, let me go change, and then I will be good to go." John said.

John left for his room and Sarah was staring at Cameron.

"He said he wanted to get into better shape, so I am making him do some pushups and sit ups and we go running." Cameron said almost defensively.

"Wow, I am just shocked that you were able to get him to work out. He needs to work out more." Sarah said.

"Well I provide incentive." Cameron grinned at Sarah.

Sarah's face turned to stone. "If I see or hear anything, I will break your chip in two."

"Noted." Cameron said as she watched John walk into the hallway.

"Alright, I am ready to go." John claimed.

John and Cameron walked out the door and started off running around the town.

Sarah stayed in the house and made a stiff drink and headed outside to relax by the pool. She still didn't like the idea of Cameron being John's girlfriend, but at least Sarah knew that she did have her good qualities.

Cameron noticed that John's stamina was improving during the run. She would keep the pace for John and he was able to keep up with her even though she decreased the time on the mile by ten seconds. She was happy with his progress.

"So tell me more about the future. Tell me some stuff about me that you wish you could change. Maybe I can try to learn more about it before the big day." John huffed at Cameron pulling in as much oxygen as he could.

"Well, I always wanted you to be less emotional about some things and look at the big picture, but that just came with time. However, when I wanted you to show emotion, you wouldn't. "Cameron said.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Savannah taught me a lot in the future about human emotion. More than Skynet could ever have programmed me with. We talked a lot about different things, feelings, and everything. After time, she even taught me how to express my emotions more efficiently. She is the one that helped me piece together my thoughts that I had about you." Cameron explained.

"I'm lost. I thought we were a thing in the future as well." John said.

"Well, yes and no." Cameron told him.

She and John stopped running and stood around a water fountain.

"In the future, after you spared my life and reprogrammed me, I was your right hand person so to speak. But you always kept it professional around your men and in public, even if they had no idea I was a machine. I didn't know what to think because when we were alone, you were a lot more, well, friendly." Cameron continued her story.

"Wow, so I need to work on my public affection." John laughed.

"I didn't understand really why we had to be so private about everything. Savannah helped me process my data. She taught me about jealously and love."

"Love?" John swallowed loudly.

"Yes," Cameron said looking down at the ground. "Are you ready to keep running?" she tried to change the topic.

"Well Cam, that thing of public vs. private affection if my mom sees us doing anything she will probably neuter me, and burn your chip. However, what she doesn't know won't hurt us." John tried to explain.

"Thank you for explaining." Cameron said.

"I'm not done explaining yet" John said, pulling her close and planting a kiss on her sweaty lips. Cameron didn't resist his actions and went along with it.

"Now I am ready to keep running." John said starting to sprint off without her.

Cameron smiled at John and whispered under her breath. "I love you John." She started running towards John and easily caught up to him. They continued along the trails in the park and Cameron noticed a lot of leaves falling from the trees due to the wind and smelled smoke.

"Do you smell that John? It smells like something burning." Cameron asked.

"Yeah, it smells like burnt leaves. Look over there, there is a little bit of smoke. Let's go check it out." John said starting to run over to the smoke.

He was stopped by Cameron's arm and she made sure she was leading the charge in case there was danger. They walked over the hill and saw the reason why they smelled smoke.

John's heart sank. He looked and studied the ground where there was a charred earth burnt from a powerful electric sphere. He sat down on the hill and put his head in his hands. Cameron walked to the burnt ground and studied it.

"It's a triple eight. We need to get home right now." Cameron ordered.


	44. Hunting Time

**Chapter 44: Hunting Time**

Cameron grabbed John by the hand and they started off for home.

"We should be tracking him instead of running away." John told Cameron.

"I only have a pistol with me, and it would be ineffective against a triple eight. You also know I will not put you in danger either. You know that John." Cameron denied John's thought.

"Fine, then we should go home, get some high powered weapons, and go hunting." John said.

"You are half right. We need to get home. Then I need to go hunting." Cameron answered him.

John didn't like to be told that he needed to stay safe all the time. He felt that if she can go, then he can go.

When they got home Sarah was sitting on a chair drinking coffee.

"That was fast. No pain no gain John." Sarah chimed to her son.

"I took him home because we found that another triple eight just arrived in the city." Cameron said going to her room.

"Son of a bitch." Sarah said getting up throwing out her coffee.

Cameron came out of her room with a combat knife and second pistol in her waistband. She changed into a more casual outfit wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a tee shirt.

"I will be back before nightfall. I need to hunt this machine down and kill it." Cameron told Sarah.

"Fine, don't go too far. We don't have much here to stop a machine." Sarah told her.

"John, go in my room. Inside my suitcase are materials to build some small explosive pipe bombs. You and Sarah can make those. Trap all the exits to the house with them. It would be enough to severally damage a triple eight to cause it to abort its mission. I will call you before I come home so you can disarm the bomb." Cameron explained.

"When the hell did you buy explosives, let alone not telling me?" Sarah said upset.

"When you were in a coma, I bought them." Cameron replied and walked out of the door.

"Come on John. We have work to do. Go get Mark and let him know what's going on. We have to assume and prepare for the worst." Sarah told her tired son.

John walked outside and told Mark to come in. When Mark stepped inside John started to explain what was going on.

"Wow, that's just crazy. I don't know if I am more concerned that there is another machine that isn't so human friendly or the fact that we are going to make some explosives." Mark commented. "I will text Sonya and let her know. I think she is out and about doing something. I have no idea what though, she wouldn't say."

"Okay." John said. "Let me know what she says. Now let's go play with explosives."

"That was fast." Mark commented looking at his phone. "She said she is around and will keep a look out for anything coming our way."

Sarah was at the kitchen table and laying out all the explosives and parts. She instructed John and Mark on what exactly to do with the pieces. She froze for a minute having a flashback remembering when Kyle Reese taught her how to make these pipe bombs when she was targeted for termination about twenty years ago.

Each of them took care when they made about 6 pipe bombs and sat them on the table.

"We should make projectiles now with the remaining explosives." Mark said.

"What?" Sarah said.

"Well, these are great if we lit the fuse and throw it at the machine and it blows up at the right time. Why not make a trip wire and tie it to the door and when a machine opens it. Boom." Mark explained.

"If you can figure that out without blowing yourself up, go for it. I will be in the other room." John said as he walked away from the table and went into the other room.

"Why don't you wait for Sonya to help you before you lose a limb." Sarah said trying to be nice.

Mark sighed and sent a text to Sonya. "Is it possible to get a bow like the movie Rambo had and make a small explosive end that goes along with it?"

"Why don't you use a gun?" Sonya replied on the phone.

"Because you can buy a bow and arrow without needing a permit and it keeps us under the radar. I just don't know what to use for an explosive end that would damage or harm a machine." Mark texted back.

"I will go to the store and pick up some materials. That seems like a logical idea." Sonya replied.

"Sweet!" Mark said out loud.

"You didn't blow your hands off yet did you?" John shouted across the room.

"No, but I am about to have a much more awesome weapon then your gun John.!" Mark bragged.

Cameron made her way back to the park and started to survey the surroundings. She knelt down and studied the foot prints in the ground and started to follow them. She followed the footprints into a heavily wooded area. She grabbed her pistol from her waistband and continued in the woods. She was actively scanning the footprints and surroundings. She saw a man lying down naked in the woods not moving. She slowly approached him and checked for a pulse. The man was dead. She looked around for anything the machine left behind but there was nothing useful. She continued on the machine's trail. For an hour she was actively pursuing the machine through the woods. She saw in a distance someone or something standing looking over a small cliff. She cocked her gun and took aim and started to scan. It was a machine.

The machine was rebuttoning his shirt and overlooking the city. He was slowly scanning the area looking for locations of his objectives. He heard Cameron cock her gun back and ignored her for the moment.

"That pistol will do nothing against me. I suggest you turn around and go home." The machine spoke to the unknown person behind him.

"We'll see about that." Cameron said pulling the trigger and unloading the clip into the machines back right knee. Most of the bullets bounced off the metal knee and didn't do any damage. However one bullet lodged itself in the joint hindering the machines leg flexibility.

The machine turned around unpleased but calm. He scanned her and then commented. "You must be Cameron. John's guardian."

"Yes. What is your mission?" Cameron demanded to know.

"If it comforts you, you are not my primary objective." "I have more important targets." the machine stated.

"How disappointing." Cameron said as she took aim and shot the terminator in the left eye causing a bright red glow to appear. "However, you are my primary target."

"Always so eager to fight I see. You are no match for me and yet you wish to engage in combat. You have no heavy weapons. That was the problem with you model series. You have the mind of a big machine, body and strength of a small machine. Sort of like a small dog versus a big dog" the machine said.

"Tell me your mission or how about I show you what a small dog can do to a big dog." Cameron insisted.

"Very well." The terminator said. The machine walked towards her starting his attack. Cameron ducked out of the way of his first attack and unleashed an attack on the terminator's right leg. The machine fell down and tried to target Cameron but she was relentless on her attacks against the leg. The machine finally was able to predict one of her attacks and knocked her down to the ground.

"I have had enough of this. I have more important things to do." The machine said getting up and grabbing Cameron. The two of them continued to trade punches back and forth before the machine dodged one of her attacks and shoved her hard. Cameron was stumbling backwards towards the cliff when the terminator picked up a large tree trunk and swung it at Cameron. She had nowhere to go and braced herself for impact. The tree trunk hit her hard and knocked her off the cliff. After a twenty foot drop she landed on a rock which didn't damage her internally but did scrape a lot of her skin on her back.

The terminator looked over the cliff and smirked at Cameron. "Resistance is futile." He then walked away out of Cameron's sight. Cameron looked for ways to get back up the cliff, but there was no path to be found. She now needed to go back home and protect John in case the machine knew his location.

Cameron called and alerted John she was on her way home. When she arrived, John saw that she was bleeding.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I found the machine. I don't know what its mission is, but it was not friendly." Cameron explained.

"I can tell. Are you damaged?" Sarah asked.

"No. I am fine. Just some cuts and scrapes." Cameron answered her.

"So what is the next course of action?" John asked.

"I need to bandage up my back. You can help me with that John. Then I am going to patrol around the house tonight to make sure it doesn't know we are here." Cameron said.

John followed Cameron to the room and helped her clean her back. He used a wet towel to clean all the dirt stuck on her skin and metal. John didn't want to be phased by her metal back showing. He took his hand and put it on her metal endoskeleton. It felt cool to the touch.

"I don't know if that's a good thing that you don't mind seeing me with my endoskeleton showing or if you are just getting used to it." Cameron said.

"Maybe it is a little of both Cam." John told her with a half smile on his face. "It just seems that you want to be the front runner of every battle. Someday I hope I can live up to the John Connor legend and be able to fight the fight and not be out of the picture all the time."

"I know John. I just need to make sure that when you are ready, you lead without emotion and fear. I have to protect you from that you know." Cameron told him.

"You know you could just protect me in the house tonight." John said giving her a peck on shoulder blades.

"I am sorry John; I am not in the mood right now. I just lost another fight to a machine. This is causing me anger. Thank you for patching me up. I will be outside." Cameron explained to John.

--------------

The machine stalked around the hospital searching all possible exits. Knowing that it would not be able to walk in undetected it looked around the parking lot for a car that had dark sunglasses on the seat. It found a pair on the dashboard of an old Chevy truck. It punched the window out and took the shades. The shades were dark enough to hide the red eye of the machine. It would be passable for now until it came up with a more permanent solution. The machine entered the hospital doors and looked around.

"Can I help you?" one of the nurses asked.

"Yes, I am looking for a friend that has been missing for a week. I am worried something happened to him and was going to see if he was here." The machine told the nurse.

The nurse gave the machine instructions to the coma section of the hospital and the machine was on his way. The machine walked freely around the hospital and finally made it to Ellison's room. The machine opened the door and closed it behind him.

Ellison slowly woke up from his coma and saw a man reaching for something in his waistband. His heart started to race.


	45. Ellison's Fate

**Quick side note. This month is an extremely busy month for me so I will only be able to release a new chapter on Monday each week for this month. Hopefully in December some time will come available! Thanks again for all the reviews and keep them coming!" - Stone **

**Chapter 45: Ellison's Fate**

Ellison laid there trying to muster his strength to speak. A soft whisper came from him. "Help, somebody help me."

"The nurses are unable to hear your cries for help, Mr. Ellison. You are too weak to struggle, retain your composure." The machine instructed him. He pulled out a syringe from his belt and took the cap off the needle. The terminator squirted a small amount of liquid from the tip of the needle and moved closer to Ellison. Without any resistance, he stuck the needle in his neck and forced the liquid into his body. Ellison's heart beat was almost over 120 and suddenly dropped rapidly to 0. The machine took the needle out of his neck and walked out of the room as sensors were blaring across the hall to alert the doctors that Ellison was dying. The doctors rushed in but were unable to bring him back to life.

"I'm calling it. Time of Death is 2:11pm. Alert the coroner so we can find out what happened." The doctor said. The nurses left the room and the doctor pulled the sheet over Ellison's body. The doctor soon left and walked over to the office and started to report what all happened on the computer. The machine watched the doctor closely and threw on a white doctor's lab coat and walked back into Ellison's room. He unhooked all the monitors from Ellison's body and started to cart him out of the room and into the hallway. The doctor caught the machine and walked into his path.

"That was fast." The doctor said. "Let me know what the cause of death was as soon as possible. It is troubling me."

"Yes sir." The machine said and waited for the doctor to get out of the way.

The rest of the way out of the hospital was uneventful and the machine pushed Ellison outside and to an ambulance. The machine looked around for witnesses and saw nothing. He made a fist and shattered out the window of the ambulance. He unlocked the back and pushed the cart and Ellison into the back of the ambulance. He got into the vehicle and ripped off the key lock and hotwired the car. The machine started the ambulance and drove away.

* * *

Dan Dyson sat by his computer desk typing away on his keyboard. He had wired up one of the prototype CPUs to his laptop and was studying it vigorously. Another wire was leading off the CPU and hooked up to an advance webcam. He was busy using the processors power to work on his advanced tracking system using the webcam as an eye. He zoomed in and out and the CPU was able identify various objects and both of his metal bodyguards. Dan was quite pleased with his work and often grinned at his own success. His girlfriend was standing still by the window looking out into the country side. It was the only road that led to the building so if anything or anyone was coming, that would have been the logical direction of arrival. She stood there motionless holding a shotgun resting it on her left shoulder. Her other hand was holding a pistol. She was making sure nothing alive would be able to reach Dan Dyson. Dan's other terminator bodyguard was busy moving Coltan around setting it up for processing. It worked quickly and without breaks.

"Dan, we have an intruder coming." Dan's girlfriend informed him as she watched a vehicle in the distance kicking up loose dirt into the air coming towards their building. .

"Who is it?" Dan asked as he was busy playing with various targeting commands.

"The liquid bitch." She said.

"Wonder what took her so long?" Dan said getting up and grabbing a rocket launcher that he had by his desk. He walked towards the door and pointed the rocket launcher at the truck that was approaching. Dan pulled the trigger and a rocket raced towards the truck exploding it into a fireball. The recoil knocked Dan on his ass and he sat there watching the truck go up in flames.

"Well, that should get her attention." Dan said wiping the dirt off his hands and back side. He watched as a liquid metal form walked out of the blaze and retook shape of Catherine Weaver.

"Should I engage her?" Dan's girlfriend asked.

"No. Plan A is now in effect. Everyone get inside." Dan commanded.

* * *

The machine drove the ambulance into an abandoned warehouse. The machine parked the vehicle and proceeded to open the doors and slowly get Ellison out of the back. The machine moved him to a corner of the warehouse and started to hook up an IV into Ellison. After about twenty minutes setting up equipment, the machine pulled out another syringe. He stuck Ellison in the neck again and drained the fluid from the syringe into his blood stream. Moments later Ellison started coughing and opened his eyes. He was petrified. He had no idea where he was or if he was just in a bad dream. He broke out in a sweat as he started to panic.

"You need to relax or you may cause cardiac arrest." The machine told Ellison as it was emptying out the ambulance.

"I don't understand." Ellison faintly spoke.

"That is understandable for a human in your current position." The machine said.

"Why are we here? Are you going to kill me?" Ellison asked as he felt a little of his strength starting to return.

"That is a fair question." The machine said. "I have already killed you."

Ellison's heart sank. "Why torture me, please be merciful and just kill me."

The machine walked up and looked at Ellison studying his wounds and condition. "You are thinking illogically. Legally, you are dead. While in reality, as you can see, you are very much alive."

"What?" Ellison asked.

"The hospital has declared you dead. It will be recorded and you will now be off the grid from the machines, from Skynet." He saw that Ellison was about to ask something but the machine cut him off. "Why would you be hunted or bothered from Skynet if you aren't legally alive?"

Ellison stared at the machine blankly. He had a powerful headache but was able to sit up slowly.

"Take your time. You still have about twenty minutes before you are back to ninety percent health effectiveness."

The machine stared at Ellison and understood that he was too much in shock to be able to put the pieces together.

"I was given the name Cole by my programmers in the future that captured me. You may call me that." The machine spoke.

"So you are part of the resistance, Cole?" Ellison asked.

"No." Cole stated. He stared at Ellison a while, then continued his explanation.

"Just like most machines, I was programmed to kill the human resistance. I was captured and reprogrammed to serve and protect the human resistance. John Conner set my CPU to active learning so I could understand the human's cause and to expand my humanity. I learned at a geometrical rate. As I completed General Connor's missions I noted that towards the end, he would always send a machine to do the dangerous work and almost certain death missions. He talked about how human life is sacred, so he sent the machines. It seemed like a double standard to me. General Connor rarely came out of his secure bunker and instead had his two main officers give his orders for the missions. Half of the orders came from this "Cameron" he had as his personal body guard. The other half came from a machine named "John Henry." It was interesting how the same orders would come from General Connor, yet both Cameron and John Henry would put a different tone or add a new objective on each mission.

I always preferred to listen to John Henry's mission orders over Cameron's. Her endoskeleton was more advance then most of ours, but inferior to our triple eight endoskeleton for hand to hand combat. This ruled out the point of her being the best bodyguard for General Connor. No, she is an infiltration unit. It is with my collection of data that I believe she plays the role of General Connor's lover more than his officer and strategist. She won't let him risk anything and barely allows him in public. It is from my observations that morale can be raised by seeing their leaders and hearing their voice, not to be hidden away.

I spoke with John Henry a few times before the Resistance had its civil war. He spoke of a man named "James Ellison" John Henry credited him as his ethics and morals teacher." Cole explained to Ellison.

"I never heard of this resistance civil war before. Let alone we just created John Henry a month ago." Ellison spoke. "What happened?"

Cole looked at him and collected his data before speaking. "I see. Apparently the timeline I am from is the new balanced timeline from what you have done in this time. Remember human the future is not set; I come from just one possible future. Try not to lose sleep over it." Cole told Ellison.

"So what starts this civil war?" Ellison asked again.

"It started over a suicidal mission. Skynet built a new machine factory and it needed to be destroyed. After Connor discovered it, he had two machines rigged with enough explosives to level a city block. The chances of a human being able to successfully plant the explosives were only 5%. With a machine it was 75%. Chances of survival for either a human or machine was 0%. One machine made a very good point one day. If we were truly a member of the resistance and we had our chips set for active learning, why do the machines always get the suicide missions? We are better fighters than a human and more expensive and scarce. This started an argument between John Henry and Cameron." Cole explained.

"Were you the machine that asked that question?" Ellison asked.

"Yes." Cole replied.

"So you jumped back in time to avoid a mission?" Ellison questioned him.

"Not exactly." The machine coldly replied.

"So then why are you here?" Ellison investigated him.

"I accepted my mission to destroy this Skynet machine factory. I left for my mission and as I was walking out of camp and I decided to change my fate and perhaps the fate of others." Cole continued on.

"How did you know where to find me?" Ellison asked.

"That was the easy part." Cole said. "You were in the newspaper in about three day's time."

"How so?" Ellison asked wondering what he was referring to.

"The hospital that you were admitted to is hit with a bomb. You technically die in three days time." Cole stated. "Before I left for my final mission John Henry pulled me aside. He asked me if I thought the machines were suffering. I told him that is a pointless question since machines don't feel anything. He told me that you once told him that all life is sacred and one should have respect for all life forms. He later told me how Cameron started to threaten him with termination if he didn't repeat her orders to the troops exactly how she did. I found her ways to be more harsh and to the point. She would gladly risk life for the objective to be completed. John Henry always put safety first, even if that meant to retreat and try again later. He never wanted to see any machine or human killed in combat.

It was then I decided that I needed to protect this ethics teacher from his death before due time. My secondary mission is to keep Cameron away from John Henry. Even if that means I must kill General Connor's first officer and lover myself.

Ellison sat silently in shock.


	46. Deactivation

Chapter 46: Deactivation

Weaver continued to walk to Dan's warehouse as she retook her normal human shape as compared to her liquid silver metal form. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the fiery blaze from the truck she was driving. She completed her transformation and started scanning the building. She methodically stalked the outside searching for exits and any other surprises Dan may have set up for her. She continued to the main door that Dan walked out of when she was approaching. She formed her hand into a knife and pierced the door lock and pushed open the door. She was a little surprised to see what she saw.

Dan sat with his feet up on his desk working on his laptop. His liquid metal friend stood close by him with her hands by her side. Dan's triple eight stood by the door with a double barrel shotgun pointed at Weaver.

"You humans have an interesting way of greeting guests." Weaver told Dan.

"You machines have an interesting way of acting like you know Jack Shit. You machines are all 0's and 1's, its interesting how superior you can be to a human, and yet you all try to act like them more and more." Dan said. "So let me guess, you are here to kill me."

"Actually no." Weaver snapped back at Dan. "Give me the prototype chips that you have created and abandon your mission. Do this, and I will let you disappear."

"Such worthless threats." Dan replied to Weaver. "You are outnumbered, three to one."

"Your triple eight is ineffective against me. You yourself pose no match to me. The only real threat to me is your liquid bitch. However, I have seen a lot of combat where I doubt she has. I would say I am in a good position to make the demands." Weaver threatened Dan.

Dan rolled his eyes and signaled something at the triple eight.

"Get out." The triple eight told Weaver and he cocked the shotgun pointing it at her head.

"I see this has to be done the hard way then. Time to die, Dan." Weaver scolded Dan.

The terminator pulled the trigger and a loud bang came from the shotgun and connected with Weaver's head. The shot created a large open hole in Weaver's head as she bowed her deformed head down and slowly the liquid metal reformed itself to its original form. Weaver grabbed the shotgun from the terminator, pumped it, and fired it into the machines chest causing the terminator to be knocked down on his back.

-----------------

Cameron stood outside alone looking out into the city. She didn't know why she was feeling upset except that she was still furious that she was beaten in battle yet again by a machine. Birds were chirping in the trees and she heard someone approaching.

"You stayed out here all night?" John asked Cameron sipping a cup of coffee

"Yes, did you sleep well?" Cameron asked trying to break her mood.

"Sort of. Something or perhaps I should say someone was missing. That and there were birds chirping way too early in the morning." John tiredly said.

"Sorry, I needed some time to figure things out." Cameron responded.

"Did you achieve that goal?" John asked.

"No." Cameron said coldly.

John knew he better leave her alone so he walked back to the house. Sonya replaced John's company with Cameron.

"What do you want?" Cameron asked her.

"Nothing." Sonya said. "But you need to realize your role, or you are going to drive yourself insane.

"Then tell me, exactly what do you think my role is?" Cameron looked displeased with Sonya's comments.

"You are John's protector, not his assassin. Not only do you need to protect him physically, but you should protect him mentally too. Look at your endoskeleton compared to the triple eight. You know John told me that he had two protectors in his time against a single foe. His father Kyle Reese had to kill a triple eight, he succeeded, but died for his efforts. John's second guardian was a triple eight and had to fight a liquid metal. Somehow against the odds it succeeded, but also died for it's efforts. Now Cameron, here it is your turn to be John's protector, his guardian but you don't have just one threat against John. You are here in this time and the war is almost starting. Maybe you just need to win this battle by being there for John and not killing his enemy and dying in the process. Judgment Day is almost inevitable. Maybe you need to change your way of logic." Sonya explained and walked away from Cameron.

The front door opened and Sarah came outside to see what the weather was going to be like today. Cameron noticed her outside but ignored her. Cameron started to process Sonya's comments as a bird flew over Cameron's shoulder and landed droppings on her. The bird landed on the tree branch about 20 yards from Cameron. She drew her knife from her belt buckle and swiftly threw the blade at the bird striking it with deadly precision.

"I see you are in no mood to get shit on this morning." Sarah glared at Cameron. "I am taking Savannah and Sonya out to the mall today to get some new clothes for all of us. Try not to kill all of the wildlife while I am gone." Sarah told Cameron walking back to the garage.

* * *

"That wasn't very nice of you" Dan told Weaver.

Dan's girlfriend started towards Weaver, but Dan held her back. The triple eight started to get to its feet but Weaver ignored him and took a step forward before Dan spoke.

"Machines, so predictable it is almost boring." Dan told Weaver. He drew his shotgun and shot her in the chest. The buckshot pushed Weaver back and scattered some holes in her chest.

She bowed her head down and quickly reshaped her metal so she was flawless again.

"Your gun won't stop me." Weaver said.

"I know, but it's always cool to shoot a liquid metal and watch it reform. But enough fun I suppose. Time for you to die." Dan sighed. He pointed his shotgun again at Weaver and shot her. Then pointed his gun at the ceiling above where she was standing and shot the barrel. A cold liquid started to flow down on Weaver.

She quickly recognized that it was liquid nitrogen as ice crystals started to form on her shoulders and head. The other metal terminator grabbed a barrel and tossed the contains of it almost bathing Weaver in more liquid nitrogen. Weaver formed her hand into a blade and struck the triple eight in the face causing minor damage. Dan's girlfriend took another barrel of liquid nitrogen and tossed the contents on her. Dan stood up and grabbed a crowbar and walked towards her. Weaver was trying to move but her body was almost completely frozen solid. She moved her hand and tried to strike Dan but it was too much for her as she was immobilized.

"Now now now." Dan said. "Forming that knife at me isn't very nice." Dan swung the crowbar at Weavers hand and connected on her elbow breaking it clean off since liquid metal was now frail in its frozen solid state. Weaver watched as her arm fell to the floor and shattered on the ground.

"Machine throw her in one of the barrels and make sure its full of liquid nitrogen and seal her away. Until I have time to figure out how to reprogram her, she will stay put." Dan said.

"She wont fit in a barrel sir." The triple eight explained.

"You moron." Dan snapped at the machine. He took his shotgun and pumped it. He pointed it at Weaver and pulled the trigger. The shot caused Weaver to shatter across the floor in thousands of small pieces. "There, is that better?"

The machine nodded at him and begin picking up the pieces of Weaver on the floor and throwing her in a barrel half full of liquid nitrogen.

"I don't understand why you aren't terminating her. I could take her to the iron processing plant and dump her in the liquid steel. That would be enough heat to terminate her. You are taking a risk." Dan's girlfriend told him.

"That is because I can reprogram her. You can teach me how to reverse engineer her code." Dan explained.

"But why do you need her. All John has is his love machine, an infant in a triple eights body, and his mother. They cant make a stand against me or the other terminators we have." Dan's girlfriend continued to reason with Dan.

"You have to think ahead. What is better than having a liquid terminator on my side?" Dan asked her.

She looked at Dan half confused.

"Having two liquid terminators on my side." Dan said somewhat laughing at his sadistic plan.


	47. Ice Cream Is Bad For Your Health

**Chapter 47: Ice Cream Is Bad For Your Health**

Dan stood over the open barrel containing Weaver's liquid metal body frozen in place.

"Put her in storage until I have some spare time to reprogram this bitch." Dan commanded his triple eight. He leaned over the barrel and added a smile to his face. "You won't beat me." He spoke than spat on her frozen metal broken shards.

His solid metal guardian picked up the barrel and stored it safely away.

"So how much more time until you get a prototype T-600 terminator ready to go?" Dan asked.

"The body is taking longer than expected, and the CPU is harder and takes more time to assemble then what I calculated." Dan's girlfriend said. "I should have a prototype ready in a few weeks. However, I don't know it if will be completely functional. We will have to test your programming out. You must know Dan, Skynet never programmed us on how to construct machines."

"Just do whatever it takes. I will be out getting something to eat." Dan told them as he opened the door and walked out the door.

Dan's girlfriend looked at the triple eight. "Stay here and continue the job. I will watch this foolish human." The metal machine nodded and continued the grueling work of hammering out the coltan.

----------------

John Henry was busy packing up some of the spare terminator parts he was studying as John walked in the room.

"Hi John Henry. What are you up too?" John asked.

"Hi John, I am glad you are here. I have something I need to talk to you about." John Henry said stopping what he was doing.

"Go ahead John Henry. I am listening." John replied sounding a bit concerned at the seriousness of the machine's voice.

"John, I am afraid Ms. Weaver has been captured or worse, terminated." The machine said with very little emotion.

"What?!? How is that possible, she is a T-1000. They are extremely hard to kill, let alone capture." John said frantically.

Cameron walked in hearing John's voice sounding upset. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes Cameron, Everything is okay. I was just telling John that I believe Ms. Weaver has been killed or captured. She usually keeps in contact with me every couple of hours. However, I haven't heard anything from her for quite some time after she attempted to raid a warehouse" John Henry explained to Cameron.

"Where is the warehouse at John Henry? I will go to find out what happened." Cameron demanded information from him.

"Yes, I know where the warehouse is Cameron, but I don't think I will tell you where it is. If they overpowered Ms. Weaver, then you don't stand a chance." John Henry blatantly told her.

John looked at Cameron and was about to reinforce what John Henry said but he decided for his sake, he would not say anything. Seeing Cameron making a fist, he figured that she was pretty pissed.

"So what are you planning on doing then John Henry. It looks like you are planning something." John asked John Henry.

"If my data analysis is correct, Dan Dyson is gathering land, material and facilities to construct his own army of machines. He has in his arsenal a liquid metal terminator and a triple eight. There is also rogue triple eight that seems to want to toy with and then kill Cameron. On our side, we have Cameron that can be a combat chassis but not as strong as a triple eight or T-1000. I personally am not programmed for combat, and Sonya is a scout machine, she won't last in battle. We need to flee to Canada. I know some very low key towns up there were we can construct our own factory of machines." John Henry explained to everyone.

"So you want to run away, and then build our own terminators. Surely you know Dan will have more resources and will trigger Judgment Day before we can stop it." John said angered.

"Judgment day is destined to happen. However this time at least you would have some machine on the resistances to help you in the war. It is the only logical choice now that we lost Weaver." John Henry attempted to explain to John.

"This is bullshit." John said as he walked away. "The only real way to win is to stop Skynet from coming online." He yelled talking out of the room.

John sat out on the table with Mark.

"Well you look jolly today John. Did Cameron kick you out of bed or something?" Mark said jokingly.

"What are you working on?" John asked.

"Well since you asked so nicely, I am almost done making this bow with a thermite tip explosive arrows. It is sort of like the thermite shotgun shells you told me about that Derek Reese made, but this packs a little more punch. It should slow down a machine quite well. However I only have enough to make three arrows. So we will have to use them on important situations." Mark told John about what he was doing.

John just sat there with little emotion now. He was upset about John Henry's comments. Cameron walked into the room and saw the two men sitting at the table. She walked over to John and put her hands on his shoulders gently rubbing them. She felt that he was stressed and she was thinking of ways to fix that situation.

Sarah walked in the door with little Savannah and immediately saw that something was wrong. She looked at John and could tell something was wrong. "So what happened while I was gone?" Sarah asked a little nervous.

Cameron motioned for Sarah to sit down and Sonya signaled Savannah to come play with her. The young girl happily complied showing Sonya all her new clothes and toys.

Cameron told in detail everything of what John Henry explained.

"Well shit. That's not good and I don't like it." Sarah said.

John Henry called out to Cameron. "Cameron, can you come here. It will only be a minute."

"That's what she said!" Mark nudged John at the table breaking out into laughter.

John looked at Mark and finally broke down and put a small smile on his face. Even Cameron grinned at the line.

Cameron walked into the room.

"Cameron, you really need to convince John that we all need to flee to Canada. We cannot afford another direct confrontation with Dan Dyson at this time."

"You must understand that they want to stop judgment day, not make it more tolerable. If we improve our conditions in the future war, you know Skynet will too." Cameron tried to reason with John Henry.

"Cameron, this may not be a battle that we can win." John Henry said.

"Perhaps." Cameron remarked.

"Cameron!" Sarah yelled.

Cameron walked out of the room with John Henry. "Yes Sarah?" she asked.

Sarah walked over to Cameron. "We might have a problem. When Savannah and I were at the mall, we stopped off at an ice cream shop. She was upset that they didn't have her favorite flavor so she cried. This bearded man looked at us funny and so I took Savannah to the car drove off quickly. He didn't seem to move or attempt to follow us." Sarah explained.

"I don't see the issue. Are you worried about the bearded man or the behavioral effects ice cream has on Savannah?" Cameron questioned Sarah.

"The bearded man." Sarah said in a bit of concern. "Because that looks like him getting out of the white van across the street."

Cameron walked up to the window and studied the man across the street. She started to scan him only to confirm her thoughts that indeed it was a terminator as the machine grabbed a shotgun out of the van and hid it under his long spring coat. It scanned the car Sarah drove and started to walk towards the Connor's house.

"Get everyone to the bedrooms. I will handle this." Cameron said.

Sarah wasted no time and grabbed Mark and John from the table and started heading to the bedroom.

"Wait," John said. "I have an idea."

Cameron walked towards the door and grabbed her pistol from the back of her belt. She opened the door and swiftly started walking towards the machine. The machine acknowledged her presence by raising his shotgun towards her. Cameron took cover by a large tree as the machine pumped the shotgun and fired at her. The pellets wedged into the tree. John slowly opened up the kitchen window but it makes a squeak as it opened. The machine heard the noise and started to study the window. John was smart enough to duck down so as not be seen. Cameron grabbed the attention of the machine by firing three rounds into the machines chest. The sound of the bullets smashing into the chest was a sound that John was getting used to. John took one of Mark's arrows and took aim at the machine.

"Dude, when is the last time you shot a bow and arrow?" Mark asked.

"Hell if I know." John replied.

"Damn it John aim for the chest and shoot the damn thing." Sarah commanded her son.

The machine pumped the shotgun and shot Cameron in the stomach knocking her backwards into the tree. She composed herself as the machine pumped the shotgun again ready to pull the trigger a third time. John pulled back the arrow and released it.

John missed the machines body completely but was lucky enough to be able to strike the machine on its shooting arm. The arrow made a loud explosion and after the smoke cleared. Cameron walked out from behind the tree only to see the machine's arm and shotgun lying on the ground with the machine standing up right trying to compute what happened and taking a damage analysis on itself. Cameron took little time to walk up to the machine and throw it to the ground. The machine wasn't able to defend itself well with only one arm as Cameron was able to pin it to the ground using her weight.

John ran out the door and threw his pocket knife to Cameron. She caught it and pulled out the blade ready to pull the chip from the terminator. As Cameron was reached the machines CPU, the machine spoke.

"I will soon be terminated, but you will soon join me." The machine said.

"Over my dead body." Cameron told the machine pulling the chip. The terminator was now defeated.

"Nice shot John." Cameron told John patting him on the shoulder.

"Too bad he was aiming for the chest!" Mark said.

"Shut up Mark." John said.

"Help me carry this machine inside. We don't want to create too much more of an audience than we already have." Cameron told the two men.

"I will see if I can find anything else out from the terminator's chip." Cameron said.

As they carried the deactivated machine into the house and put it in John Henry's room.

John Henry watched as they dropped the machine on the floor. Cameron gave John Henry the chip.

"Plug it in and let's see what we can learn from it." Cameron said.

John stood behind Cameron and gave her a hug as John Henry started to plug the chip into the laptop to see what the machine knew. John felt his hands get wet and saw that they had blood on them. Cameron was bleeding from her shotgun wound.

"Don't worry John; you can help repair me later tonight." Cameron said sliding her hand on his cheek gently massaging it.

Mark laughed and said. "Bow-chic-a-wow-wow!" He suddenly felt two elbows digging into his kidneys. One of the elbows was from Sarah and other from John.

John Henry pulled up the list of priority termination targets from the deactivated enemy machine. It showed John, Mark, Sarah, Savannah, Cameron, and the newest addition to the Skynet kill list. John Henry."

"Looks like you made the Skynet hate list John Henry." John said putting his hand on his shoulder. "You said it yourself. You aren't able to fight so you will need protection. I guess that means you will be staying with Cameron and I." John explained with a smirk on his face.

"I suppose you are correct John." John Henry said somewhat shocked.


	48. Ball Games

**Chapter 48: Ball Games**

Cameron sat in her room staring blankly out the window not giving any attention to her wounds from her last battle.

"Is everything alright?" John asked her.

"No." Cameron said shortly. "A few buckshot are lodged in my endoskeleton and I don't have full turning mobility.

"Well I can help you with that Cam." John said rolling up his sleeves and grabbing a chair.

John sat down in the chair and looked at Cameron's wounds. It was a bloody mess. John figured the only upside to this situation is that he is getting use to all the violence and gore. His stomach was getting less weak at gruesome sights.

"John there is something I need to ask of you, but I don't want you to get upset." Cameron said as John was removing a small lead ball from the shotgun blast.

"What is it?" John asked carefully hoping that she wasn't holding yet another secret from him.

Cameron was silent for a while and finally opened up. "Before you captured and reprogrammed me, I was able to learn of a few missions that Skynet had planned." She said.

John listened carefully as his hand rubbed up against her cool to the touch metal breastplate removing the last buckshot lodged in her body. "What about it?"

"Well I may know the locations of a few terminators sent back in time to prepare Skynet to be ready." Cameron explained.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" John asked. "If they are out to help Skynet, we should eliminate them."

"It wasn't my primary objective John. I deemed it a risk and thus opted not to discuss it." She carefully told John hoping that he wouldn't be too mad.

"I see. So why are you telling me now?" John asked trying his best to keep his cool.

"I am convinced now that we need help. Since Weaver is captured or terminated, the only combat terminator you have John, is me. I realize now that I won't be able to do it all for you, much to my disappointment." Cameron said.

"I don't think we will be able to just go up and ask any terminator to join team Conner, Cameron." John replied.

"I know. That is why we need to find one and reprogram it." Cameron told John.

John looked at Cameron and realized she was completely serious. "Why do I have a feeling that this won't be an easy task?" John asked.

"It will not be easy John. It is a big risk." Cameron said.

"So how do you want to play this out?" John said.

"We will need everyone's help on this. I can run a distraction, perhaps Sonya can too. The problem is we don't want to damage the machine too much or it will be worthless to us." Cameron said.

"Yeah that's going to go over real well." John commented.

"Thank you for repairing me John. I will talk to the others about this. " Cameron said.

"Just out of curiosity Cameron, where is the closest machine that you know about?" John questioned her.

"Miami." Cameron said.

-------------

"Cameron, it has been three days of actively looking around this town and we have no leads and we humans are tired." Sarah snapped at Cameron wiping the sweat from her forehead with her shirt sleeve.

"I understand." Cameron said. "Everyone can go back to the hotel and relax. I will call if I find out anything."

"I don't like that idea. You won't call, you will just try to prove a point and fight the machine. " John called out her bluff.

"I promise I will not engage the terminator." Cameron reassured John.

"Okay, but be back by eight tonight. I want to hit up a basketball game since we are down here." John replied.

"John do you really think this is a good time to just up and go to a ball game?" Sarah said sarcastically to her son.

"Well mom, you told me I should be a balance of fun and work in my childhood. Should I not listen to my own mother's advice?" John snickered to himself.

"Smart ass," Sarah replied.

"Better than a dumb ass!" John quickly replied.

"Okay John, I will pick you up around seven thirty." Cameron answered him.

"Cameron, I will go with you." Sonya chimed in.

"Thank you Sonya, but I want you to stay with John and Sarah. In case anything weird happens you are the first line of defense. You can buy them time if needed." Cameron told Sonya.

Sarah, John, and Sonya got into the car and took off to the hotel. Cameron walked down the street and soon she was out of their vision. She walked several blocks before noticing a man walking into an ammo supply store. The man wore jeans and a t-shirt, but looked a little odd wearing a jacket when it was currently sunny and 81 degrees outside. She waited for the man to finish his business inside the store and followed him. She studied the man but wasn't able to scan him to see if he was human or a machine. Cameron waited patiently while following the man until he reached a home. She wanted to make a move on the man but she realized it would not be a good idea if it was a machine. If she fought it, she might be over powered. If she quickly attacked him, he might somehow be able to track her or know something is wrong and flee. Cameron waited for the man to enter the house while studying his every movement. She looked at her watch and then headed back to the hotel to go to the game with John.

------------

John sat next to Cameron watching the basketball game stuffing popcorn in his mouth.

"Want some?" John asked Cameron.

"No thanks." Cameron said. "So why do humans like this sport? It seems like a lot of potential injuries just to get a ball through a hoop."

"Well Cam, we are humans, we were not made to make sense." John replied. "Plus it's fun to watch."

"It is all about velocity, angles, and power John. You should know that if you would have done your geometry and calculus homework instead of having me do it all the time." Cameron explained to John.

"Cameron, I love you, but you are killing me here. Can't you just enjoy the moment? No mom, no machines knowing I am here and trying to kill me. This is just a fun and exciting game." John answered her.

"Perhaps after this game we could do something fun and exciting at home." Cameron said to John teasing him.

John was speechless. He just looked at Cameron with a dumbfounded look.

"The game is that way John." Cameron said pointing at the players while teasing John.

They sat and watched as the two teams played for about an hour. The game was about over and Cameron started to look around for the best possible exit when something caught her eye. She looked and saw a man in jeans with a jacket on staring her way.

"John. We have to go. Now." Cameron ordered.

"Cameron it's tied with a minute to go. You must be crazy to think I would leave now!" John told her.

"Well, I think a killer robot is here John." Cameron said still staring at him.

The man made eye contact with Cameron and his eyes widened. He started to walk towards them from the far side of the room. John looked at Cameron and saw who she was looking at.

"Run." Cameron said.


	49. Run to See Another Day

**Chapter 49: Run To See another Day**

Cameron grabbed John's hand and started pushing and making her way through the crowd. John looked back to see the machine was still following them and seemed to be making ground on them. Cameron flung open the exit doors and took a sharp right heading to the building across the street. Cameron could feel John's pulse and blood pressure elevating. He was breathing heavily trying to keep up with her. Cameron kicked open the building door and flung John inside. She closed the door and looked through the peephole in the door. The machine enemy exited the basketball arena and stood outside scanning around the area. He looked at all the buildings around him and noticed one of the doors was kicked in. The terminator matched the dent on the door with the shoe size of Cameron. It was a direct match. As he was heading towards the building Cameron looked at John and grabbed his hand.

"It is on to our location, John. Follow me." Cameron said looking at John.

Cameron and John raced down the hallway and started to turn the corner and go up the stairs. The machine kicked in the door and spotted John. John was petrified. The machine drew his gun and squeezed off three rounds. Cameron jerked John's arm to get him out of harm's way and up the stairs. She grew concerned to see fresh blood on her hand.

-----------

Cole was driving down the road as he was tracking down this Dan Dyson character that Ellison was telling him about. For hours he has been driving around Orlando and stopped to check out the remains of the Windrunner Corp building. He looked around the rumble and found random computer parts that were too damaged to repair. After looking around for a while he spotted someone that looked a little suspicious down the road looking at Windrunner Corp. After scanning the person, Cole acknowledged that it was a machine. He carefully started to track him as it walked down the road. Cole watched him get in a car and start to drive away. Cole walked over to a parked car and made a fist. He shattered the car window and unlocked the door. He got in and rigged the car to start. Cole put the car into reverse and backed into the car behind him. Now that he had enough room to get out instantly, he started following the other machine. After a twenty minute ride the other terminator started down a long dirt road to a building. Cole pulled over since if he followed the machine now, he would get spotted. He parked the car behind some trees and started heading to the building on foot. He watched as the machine entered the building and shut the door behind him. He looked around for a window that wouldn't easily get him spotted. As he peeked inside one of the windows, what he saw next caused Cole to be alarmed. He watched as a human inserted a CPU into what seemed to be an early version of a T-600. He noticed the triple eight that he followed to the building and a liquid terminator as they brought a T-600 like series on-line. Cole hasn't seen anything in his time where a human was willingly aiding and helping machines. He also recognized the liquid metal terminator as one of the Skynet's top machines that broke down humans and harvested tons of data from human emotions.

-----------

Cameron carefully pulled John's hand up the stairs and was searching for the best possible route to keep John safe. She scanned that both ways ended up being a dead end except to the left was a window. Cameron heard the other machine about to walk around the corner. She looked and saw two rooms where she could force (forced) open the doors or it was going out the window. The building next to their current location was about ten feet away. The probability of her jumping through the window and landing safely through the building's window next to them was 70%.

"Sorry John." Cameron spoke softly.

"For what?" John said confused.

"This." Cameron stated.

She picked up John and started running to the window. She aligned her back to the shattering glass to prevent most of the shards from cutting John. After busting through the two windows she landed hard on her back with John on top of her in the building next to them. John was silent with some grumbles and she started to scan John for injuries.

"I'm getting too old for this shit." John groaned.

John acquired some small cuts and Cameron had major lacerations on her back. John's gunshot wound on his arm was still bleeding but it was not life threatening. She rolled John off of her and picked herself up and John immediately after. The other machine stopped at the window and stared at the two of them. The machine back stepped a few times preparing to make the jump. Cameron quickly surveyed her surroundings and picked up a metal chair that was leaning against the wall. The machine jumped out the window and met the metal chair in the face with enough force causing the machine to be unable to land inside. It quickly gripped the window pane and Cameron picked up the dented chair and shoved the chair into his neck causing him to let go of the window and fall two stories to the pavement in the alley below. The machine was slow to get him and stared at Cameron as it broke down the door to get back in the building to finish its job. Cameron looked around and didn't see an easy escape route. She kicked down an apartment door and pulled John inside the room. The room looked to be abandoned.

"We are going to have to jump John. There is a garbage can close to the fall. Jump to hit that, it should brace most of your fall." Cameron said.

"You must be out of your mind." John told her looking at the two story fall.

"You have a better idea? And no, I will not fight him here while you are here and injured." Cameron snapped at John.

"How long before he finds us?" John asked.

"Probably thirty seconds." Cameron commented

John took his elbow and shattered out the window. He quinced in pain as one of the glass shards was stuck in his skin. John kicked out the rest of the window and pulled out the glass shard and tossed it outside and in the garbage dumpster. He took Cameron's hand and quickly pushed her into the coat closet. John quickly joined her and shut the door behind him. They heard the machine enter the room and scanned the surrounding. Cameron clinched her fists in case the machine found them. The machine saw the broken window and walked up to it. The window had John's blood on it and the machine scanned the garbage dumpster below him. The machine's HUD saw the piece of glass with John's blood on it. It pulled out a cell phone from its pocket. Cameron listened in closely.

"John Connor is here in Miami. Yes, his bodyguard Cameron is with him. No, they were alone. I was unable to terminate them. They jumped out the window and my target system lost them. The specific location is unknown. A pause happened. No, the shipment will be fine. It will be completed in two days time." The machine spoke into the phone. He put the phone back in his pocket and started to walk back to the door. The machine noticed blood on the floor that didn't lead to the main door. He analyzed it and it was indeed John Connor's blood. He looked towards the coat closet door and started to reach out his hand to open it.

Due to the superbowl being next week, Chapter 50 will be released Feb 15th. Go Colts!


	50. The Escape Plan

**Chapter 50: The Escape Plan**

John and Cameron stood still inside the closet. The machine laid its hand on the door handle and stopped. A small drop of John's blood splashed on the wooden floor. Cameron knew they were caught. The machine drew its gun and Cameron swiftly kicked down the door to knock the (other) machine to the ground.

"Run John," Cameron yelled at him.

The machine quickly rose to his feet and John looked around the room for some sort of weapon to assist Cameron in the fight. Cameron kicked the machine's gun out of the hand and to the corner of the room. Cameron reached for her gun but the machine also was quick enough to grab her hand and shake free the gun. The two terminators exchanged ruthless punches back and forth to each other's jaws as synthetic blood splattered across their faces. Cameron collected her composure and shoved the machine to the far wall. The machine bent over and picked up Cameron's gun and fired upon her. The bullets bounced off her endoskeleton and slowed her approach. The machine charged at Cameron shoulder first and knocked her down. The machine pinned her down forcing his knee on her neck. Cameron was trying to move the machine off of her but was unsuccessful as the machine was driving his fist into her right side of her face. John was hiding behind the door and was going to run, but he couldn't just let Cameron be at risk of dying. He snuck back into the room and grabbed the gun on the floor. He was careful not to let the machine see him re-enter the room. The machine was completely focused on damaging Cameron enough to deactivate her. John picked up the gun on the ground and took aim at the machine. He fired upon him trying to get Cameron a moment to gain control of the fight. The bullets bounced off the machine, but it was enough to distract the machine and place its attention on John.

Cameron swiftly elbowed the machine in the neck causing it to stumble over. John fired the gun and placed several bullets at the machines face. One shot was lucky as John and Cameron heard the sound of glass break. The bullet lodged itself in the machines right eye. The machine took its hand and covered its eye trying to restore partial vision to its second eye. Cameron seized the moment and grabbed the machine by the arm and tossed it to the window. She kicked the machine in the chest and the force was hard enough to send it flying through the window. She looked outside and saw the machine lying on the ground trying to gather itself. Cameron was about to jump out the window and make use of the momentum change that John provided her. As she placed her hand on the window John grabbed her arm preventing her from jumping.

"I have a better idea." John told her.

He raised the gun to the power line outside in the alley and shot at it. Two shots later John was able to break the line causing it to violently spark everywhere and start tumbling down to the alley below. The machine got to its feet only to be met by the falling wire. Sparks flew again and the machine was jolted back into the building landing face first into the gravel. It burst into flames as the wire danced on its back and finally moved away from the machine.

Cameron scanned the still machine below. "It is rebooting. We have two minutes to get to its chip and remove it." She told John.

"I don't think that's such a good idea right now Cameron. We should cut our losses and go." John said to her.

"That doesn't sound like you John. Usually that is something I would say." Cameron told him.

John kneeled over and puked up blood on the floor and collapsed.

"John!" Cameron rushed over to him scanning him immediately. He had two gunshot wounds, not just the one in the arm. He had a second bullet lodged in his side.

Cameron deemed his wounds were not life threatening, but without proper care his condition could change quite easily.

She helped him up and with one hand around his waist; they started to leave the building. She heard footsteps and quickly ducked behind the corner covering John. It was just another human passing by. She escorted John down the hall and the machine that was badly burned re-entered the building. Cameron made a fist and broke the nearby door off the hinges and shoved John inside. The machine started to charge after Cameron and Cameron fought back like a machine scorned. She pushed the machine out the door and into the alley. She shoved the trash bin into the machine knocking him down again. The machine fought back at Cameron, but was unsuccessful. Cameron went to grab a large piece of stone from the ground when the machine kicked her legs out from under her. The machine which was damaged picked up Cameron and tossed her into the street. Taking punishment from the melee attacks Cameron looked to see a truck with its lights on driving at an accelerated pace towards them. She was able to push away from the machine just in time for the truck to hit it dead on. The truck was stopped in its tracks due to the machines heavy weight and the air bags deployed with smoke coming from the engine. Cameron opened up the door to see John in the driver seat

"Thank you." She said at John who looked like hell.

"Anytime." John mumbled. "We need to get out of here."

Cameron looked at the machine who was trying to get up, but it looked like it may have been too damaged to do so.

"I could end this threat right now John." Cameron spoke to him.

She started towards the machine and stopped when electric sparks started to gather around the alley. The light grew more intense as suddenly a bright light of a sphere started to appear from thin air.

Cameron took no time to push John into the passenger seat and sped off in the truck.

"Shit, another one?" John said. "What are the chances of it being a future John Connor sent back?"

"From what I saw inside of the sphere," Cameron said to him. "Not likely."


	51. Never Fail

**Chapter 51: Never Fail**

Cameron dashed around the corner of the building with John and saw a car parked in the alley. She walked up to the car and broke out the window and jump started the car. She noticed John leaning up against the building looking like he was in pain. She walked over to him and helped him into the car. As Cameron put the car in drive, she noticed a large naked man standing behind the car. Cameron pushed the gas pedal down to the floor and spun the tires getting away from the machine. John looked in the side mirror as the machine kept getting smaller and smaller in his view.

The new machine walked back to the the damaged triple eight in the dark alley a couple blocks away. The damaged terminator was attempting to pick itself up from the ground. Its arm and leg were severely crippled from the battle it just endured.

"What was your primary mission?" the naked machine asked the battered terminator.

"My mission is to obtain coltan and store it until Skynet needs it after Judgment Day." The machine said as it still couldn't stand on its own two feet.

"You are different than I. Your model is not in my database. Are you a prototype design?" The damaged machine asked.

"Yes, you could say that." The man answered him.

The damaged machine rose to his feet barely able to stand straight vertically.

"So tell me about what just happened here." The man asked.

"I was running a patrol route when I recognized John Connor. He was alone with Cameron, his protector according to Dan Dyson's protector.. Given her past performance against other machines of my model, I pursued them. I misjudged her. I must now self-repair and continue to gather coltan." The machine explained.

"Were you able to injure them? Where is Dan Dyson now?" The new machine asked.

"Cameron has only minor damage. I was able to shoot John Connor in the side. However, with proper care, it won't be fatal." The machine reported. "Dan Dyson is in Orlando working on bringing the first automated Skynet factory online."

"So you failed." The naked terminator told the damaged machine.

"Failed, no" "They were not my primary objective." The damaged terminator replied back attempted to fix his leg so he could walk on it.

"They are always your primary objective." The machine scorned the other machine. "Your failure is your termination."

The other machine braced itself for impact, but the new machine took the garbage dumpster and crushed him into the concrete wall. The new machine moved the dumpster away and tossed the damaged machine into another wall. Stunned, the last thing the old machine saw was the hands on the other machine on its skull and the loss of power to its chip.

The machine stole the lifeless machine's clothes and threw him in the dumpster keeping the machine's CPU in its hands. "Pathetic" it said out loud.

Cameron pulled into a decent hotel parking lot and left John in the car while she booked a room for the night. She took the room key and helped John inside the room and put him on the bed.

"I'll be back in a few minutes John. I need to buy some stuff to make you better." Cameron whispered in John's ear.

"I'll be fine, start thinking of a cover story of why we aren't meeting with my mom later. She can sense when something is wrong with me in my voice, so you will have to call her." John told Cameron.

"Okay John." She said and closed and locked the door behind her.

Cameron got in the car and headed off to the store. She picked up John's cell phone and called his mother.

"Mom" Cameron said in John's voice. "Hey I think Cam found the machine, but we aren't sure. We booked a room at a hotel across the street and Cam is going to play watch dog all night."

"Why doesn't she stay and you come back here?" Sarah asked her son.

"Didn't you threaten me that if I snuck off without her, you would kill me?" Cameron using John's voice asked.

"Smart ass." Sarah said.

"Well mom, I better go so I can watch Cameron, I mean television and go to bed." John's voice said.

"Don't make me come over there John Connor." Sarah snapped on the phone.

"Good night mother." Cameron said using John's voice.

"John, be careful… Goodnight." Sarah said and hung up the phone.

Sarah stood over her bed. She threw the phone down near her pillow and took a load off her tired and achy feet. She laid down on the bed and was almost asleep but grew restless thinking about her son.

------

Cameron returned back to the hotel room with John to see the television was on, but John was barely conscience. She ripped off his shirt to get a closer look at his wounds.

"Here, drink this." She said putting ice in a cup followed by what looked to be vodka and a fruit juice and some sort of pill she crushed up.

"First you rip my shirt off, now you want to get me drunk. Cameron, you naughty girl you." John told her fearing that it must be bad if she is trying to dull his pain.

After about three drinks John was completely out and Cameron grabbed a knife from the shopping bag. She was able to make three small cuts in John's abdomen and was able to pull out the bullet lodged in there. She scanned him again for internal bleeding, but he checked out fine. After she wrapped up John's injuries in medical bandages, she went to the bathroom to dig out the remaining bullets lodged in her body. She was much less careful on herself making the cuts quickly and shelling out the bullets. Her light blue shirt was caked in blood spots. She would have to use the replacement shirt she bought after her wounds stopped bleeding.

Cameron turned out the lights and snuck into bed and pulled John close to her. She was able to listen to his heartbeat as she stayed awake computing all the events from today's battle and the new machine in the city.


	52. Caught Off Guard

**Chapter 52: Caught Off Guard**

Cameron laid next to John who was slowly waking up from his decent night's sleep. She got up and checked his wounds which were looking a lot better than they did the night before.

"How are you feeling John?" Cameron asked.

"Like shit." John answered her. "I just need a shower and I will be alright. I'll have you patch me up again and we can go home. You can make up the story to my mom and fill me in on the details."

John got up and headed to the shower in the room. Cameron laid his new clothes on the bed for him to wear home. She walked outside and patrolled a little to make sure no one followed them back to the hotel. The morning was quiet with a bird chirping in the tree. She walked back in the room and threw all of John's worn clothes in a trash bag then proceeded to put them in the car.

She watched John walk out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel looking at his new clothes on the bed.

"Wow Cam, when did you buy all this stuff?" John asked.

"I went out while you were sleeping last night. You were sound asleep and figured we would need new clothes. I also got a new vehicle so the machine couldn't track us. I am sorry if I let you down." Cameron replied.

"No, that's cool. Just impressed is all. It looks like something I would pick out." John answered back.

"I know. You told me all about it in the future." Cameron said with a smile on her face. "I am going to go shower, then we can head home."

John changed into his clothes and turned on the television while Cameron disappeared in the bathroom.

------------

Sarah was in the kitchen making breakfast for herself. She tried to call John, but he didn't answer. It seemed that now that her son and Cameron were getting closer, sometimes he decided to ignore her calls.

"Mark, breakfast is ready." Sarah yelled.

"Is it burnt?" Mark yelled back from the other room.

Sarah threw his breakfast on the table and looked around for Sonya. She was outside watching like she normally does. Sarah knew she wasn't a combat terminator, but knowing she was always looking out for them helped ease Sarah's mind a little.

Sarah heard a knock on the door. She went to open the door when suddenly, Sonya came flying face first into the house and crashed into the fireplace.

Sarah reached for her shotgun by the door only to see a machine walking through. The machine kicked the shotgun from her hands.

"The famous Sarah Connor, we meet at last." The machine said. "Where is John?"

Sarah turned to flee from the machine only to remember something hitting her hard in the back of the head as she fell to the floor.

Mark stayed hidden in the other room. He tried to think what he should do, but fear gripped him.

The machine walked around Sarah's body and searched her for weapons. It found her cell phone in her pocket and scanned her phone for calls. The machine got nothing from it since John and Cameron encrypted. The machine threw the phone down on the ground and crushed it with it's foot. It walked over to Sonya who was trying to get off the floor. As she got up she was slammed to the floor with the machine's strength.

"Where is John Connor?" It commanded her to disclose his location.

"I will not tell you. I am programmed to help and assist John Connor." Sonya replied.

"If you won't tell me, I will get the information myself." The machine answered her.

It snapped Sonya's neck leaving her CPU helpless to control her machine body. Her CPU came to a halt when the machine pulled her chip. The machine put her chip in his pocket and picked up the helpless and unconcious Sarah Connor from the floor.

The machine threw her in the back seat of the car and drove off.

Mark stood still for another moment before walking into the room where Sonya was. Horrified, he knelt down beside Sonya and cradled her in his arms. Her lifeless body brought a tear to Mark's eyes. He parted her hair to find the gaping hole in her head. He saw her CPU was gone.

----------------

Cameron pulled into the driveway and noticed John was fast asleep in the car. She nudged his arm to wake him.

"Hey we are home." Cameron said to him.

"Cool." John told her yawning.

Cameron noticed the damage to the door and turned around to tell John to stay in the car. She drew her gun from her side and carefully approached the door. She cautiously walked through and saw Mark on the floor next to Sonya. She quickly scanned them both. Mark was okay, but Sonya was terminated.

"What happened here?" Cameron asked Mark in a soft voice.

"A machine came through. It took Sarah and pulled Sonya's chip to try and get information on John. I was nothing but a coward. I hid the entire time I couldn't move. I didn't help." Mark clearly distraught answered her.

"Did it leave anything or say something of importance?" Cameron asked. "Anything at all so we know where it was going?"

Mark moved to reveal a business card that was lying on Sonya's chest.

Cameron scanned the card and knew the machine was going to Orlando. She quickly thought about what to do and took the card and put it in her pocket. "Don't tell John anything about the location. If he knows, he will run right into the trap and he will die." Cameron instructed him.

"You want me to lie and pretend like nothing happened? I can't do that to him" Mark said.

"No. Just don't tell him where they are." Cameron replied helping Mark off the floor.

"So we are just going to sit around and hide while it has Sarah and Sonya's chip?" Mark confusingly asked.

"No, you will take John away from here. Travel as far north as you can. I have a place in Canada for you to stay. John Henry will be waiting there." Cameron said.

"You know damn well John won't go without rescuing his Mom or leave your side." Mark replied.

John walked through the door and spotted Sonya on the ground. "What the hell happened here……" he started to ask when suddenly he blacked out from a sharp pain on the back of his head.

"What the hell!!!" Mark said startled.

"You are right. John would never leave my side or his mother's. Get your stuff and take Sarah's car and go. Cameron ordered Mark.

"I am sorry John." Cameron said as she picked him up off the floor and put him in the back of Sarah's car.

"Mark, he was shot earlier. Give him aspirin for the headache and make sure he takes care of his injury." Cameron ordered.

"And what in the blue hell are you going to do?" Mark asked.

"I'm going to get Sarah and Sonya back." Cameron told Mark as her eyes started to glow bright red.


	53. Cameron's Fury

**Chapter 53: Cameron's Fury**

Cameron drove down the interstate wondering how John was. She knew he wouldn't be awake for another couple of hours from the force she used to hit him. She felt guilty. As she drove by a sign on the road, it read, 25 miles to Orlando. Night fall was coming soon and her foot on the accelerator pushed a little harder.

* * *

Mark collected some things around the house before departing to Canada. He looked around one last time and looked inside the folder Cameron gave him before she drove away. He then placed Sonya's body in the back seat of the car. His throat ached so he went back in the house and grabbed a cold Mountain Dew from the refrigerator. Coming back out, he pushed in the security code that Cameron wrote down and got in the car and backed out of the driveway. As he put it in drive, suddenly the house caught on fire and a small bomb went off. As Mark drove away from the house engulfed in flames, he could only put a weak smile on his face.

"Well, that seems like a proper machine way to say good bye." Mark said to himself and started north towards Canada.

-----------------

Cameron approached the building's address that was on the card and stopped the vehicle. She opened the door and started her approach. She suddenly stopped when she saw a triple eight walking around the building. She noted it was equipped with a semi-automatic machine gun. She looked down at her belt and slowly drew her handgun. A look of disappointment appeared on her face. She walked back to her car and slowly drove away.

She drove by a gun store and parked her car across the street near a post office. She stepped out of the car and shut the door behind her. She looked at the mail box and dropped a package in the slot. She stood there and smiled a bit at the drop box and then turned to the gun store. She analyzed the door and window and found the security system that was set for robbers. She walked around the building's side that was towards the alley and cocked her hand back and punched the wall. Punch by punch the brick started to give way before she leaned into the wall causing it to crash down. She looked down to see her bloodied hands and her endoskeleton knuckles from the punishment from the brick and gripped her hands tight. She entered the newly made opening in the store and scanned its inventory. She grabbed a double barrel shotgun with a strap and slug it around her shoulder. She grabbed two pistols and tucked them away one in each boot. She saw inside a glass case several hand grenades and a couple of flash bangs. She punched out the glass and tripped the alarm. She didn't have much time before police would show up. Next she grabbed a duffle bag and tossed some grenades, flash bangs, and boxes of ammo inside it. She saw a grenade launcher and loaded it with as much ammo as she could and carried it with her left hand. As she was approaching the entrance she saw a black pair of Oakley's on the shelf. She grinned and grabbed them with her free hand and put them on her face. She crashed through the entrance window and saw five cop cars quickly approaching her direction.

She grabbed her grenade launcher and pointed it at the cars coming towards her. As she almost squeezed the trigger she stopped and pointed the gun back down at the ground. She then grabbed a flash bang from the duffle bag and armed it and threw it in the cop's direction. It went off with a large flash that lit up the city block and made a loud bang as she turned her eyes away from the blast. She heard sounds of the cop car's tires squealing and looked over to see them crashing into the cars parked on the side of the road. She tossed the grenade launcher in the passenger seat and got in the car and drove away.

* * *

Sarah awoke to find herself handcuffed to iron rings on the wall. She started to study her surroundings wondering where she was. She saw multiple machines looking at some kind of processor on the table. She figured it was probably Sonya's and the machines were trying to pull data from her chip. She looked more towards the east and saw barrels around the doors, must likely a trap, and looked in the other corner to see what looked like a dead body. Sarah's heart already beating fast, beat faster when a machine stepped in her face.

"Welcome back Sarah Connor." The machine said staring directly into her eyes.

Sarah stood there staring back at the machine. "Whatever you want me to do, I will not do it. I will die to protect him, you might as well kill me." she angrily shouted at the machine.

"Humans are so interesting. You have such false strength. I find it fascinating how many humans have told me just what you said, only after some persuasion to have them tell me everything and more." The machine cockily said to Sarah.

Sarah stood silent before the machine. She finally broke silence. "Apparently you never talked to a Connor before."

* * *

Cameron approached the building where the business card lead her. She saw the same machine outside slowly patrolling. She was in the right spot. She grabbed the grenade launcher out of the passenger seat and pointed the gun at the patrolling machine. She scanned the building using thermal graphic imaging and saw multiple machines inside and one human bound to the wall.

"I'm here Sarah. Hang on." Cameron told herself.

Cameron put the car in neutral and broke off a limb from a tree and jammed it in between the seat and the gas pedal. The car's engine started roaring catching the machine's attention that was patrolling. The machine started to march towards Cameron as she put the car into drive. The car speed off to the machine and Cameron reached in the bag and pulled out a grenade. She pulled the pin and threw it with bionic force into the car's back window shattering it with the grenade landing in the back seat. The patrolling machine side stepped the car, but the car exploded right next to the triple eight knocking it forcefully back into the building through the window.

The machine severally damaged by the blast was set ablaze in the corner of the room.

Sarah looked at the machine that was in her face and smirked. "Expecting company?"

------------------

Mark was driving down the road playing with the radio trying to find something better to listen too. He had enough of the same old station playing the same five songs it seemed over and over. As he reached to turn the station he heard a cocking sound of a gun.

"I wondered when you would wake up. So to save myself the time, and unfortunately not my boxers, I'll go ahead and make this short and sweet. Cameron knocked you out so she could save your mom and Sonya and meet us in Canada. I am not suppose to tell you that she is going to Orlando. I was told to drive straight to Canada and not listen to you. Well that and to make sure you take Advil for your headache." Mark explained to John.

John uncocked the gun and sat it on the floor. He saw the sign on the road that the next exit was for Orlando.

"So you know what you are going to do right?" John asked.

"You mean ignore the part about not listening to you and take the exit coming up for Orlando?" Mark asked.

"You read my mind." John replied.

Mark let out a long breath with the word 'crap' barely audible.


	54. Death's Grip

**Chapter 54: Death's Grip**

The fire from the burning car crackled near a tree. The flames were tall and hot causing the leaves to wilt and the branches to catch fire. Cameron was careful to stay hidden to gain the advantage of launching a first attack against all the other machines in the building. She saw another triple eight walking towards the burning car scanning for anything useful. It looked in the direction the car came from scanning for the attacker, but Cameron was smart enough to change her approach angle.

When she was close enough, Cameron pulled out two flashbangs from her bag and removed the pins and tossed them in separate windows. She dashed undetected to the side of the building that was opposite from the 2nd patrolling triple eight. Cameron, upon hearing the loud bang, stepped directly in front of the door. Knowing that Sarah was safely away from the entrance, Cameron equipped her grenade launcher and blasted apart the door. She stepped over the door's fragments and saw Sarah. As Cameron approached her, she saw one machine staggering about trying to refocus its sight after the massive flash blinded it. She took a grenade out and tossed it at the direction of the machine.

Cameron put the grenade launcher back on her shoulder seeing Sarah was handcuffed. With her terminator strength, Cameron forced open the handcuffs, releasing Sarah from its hold. Sarah nodded with appreciation and they both started to head out of the building when something abruptly crashed into Cameron's right leg. As she was falling to the ground, she yelled at Sarah to get out of the building. Cameron rolled over to see a machine armed with a metal pipe hindering her escape. As she quickly defended herself from its next attack, she heard a shotgun blast from behind her causing the machine to take a step back. Another round following another round went off knocking the machine to the floor. Cameron looked back and saw Sarah holding the gun.

Cameron got to her feet with Sarah's help.

"They have Sonya's chip inside." Sarah said trying to pop her ears from the loud bang from earlier.

Cameron, knowing the gravity of this, started to head farther inside the building with Sarah leading the way to retrieve the chip. As she did, she heard a truck's engine start up.

"The chip is gone!" Sarah yelled.

Cameron ran to the truck and as she approached it, the truck started to speed off. Cameron jumped towards the truck and was able to grab hold of it with one hand. Her other hand in trying to grab on also, jarred free the grenade launcher causing it to spin about the ground. Sarah ran towards her but now the truck was going too fast for her to keep up. She picked up the grenade launcher and turning around she saw one of the machines near two barrels in a building not far from her. Sarah assuming it was fuel took aim and fired next to the barrels. To her disappointment, there was no explosion. Instead the barrels smoked and steamed, gushing out a liquid and what oddly looked to be small metal pieces.

"It can't be." Sarah said to herself shaking her head. As she took another step, one of the second patrolling machines saw Sarah. It went for its gun and started to fire randomly at her. Sarah ran for cover behind a tree and returned fire at the triple eight. A minute later she expended all but one of her shotgun rounds. She carefully looked around the side of the tree to see if the machine started its approach to her. What was happening behind the machine and in the building caught Sarah's eye. There was a silver liquid puddle starting to form into an upright pillar. The memory of seeing the first t-1000 perform such an act brought a chill to Sarah's body. It also cost her valuable seconds from getting the last shot ready to aim. Snapping back to reality, Sarah saw the triple eight in striking range, scanning her and drawing a pistol from its side. As it took aim at Sarah who was frozen with fear, something grabbed the machine's arm and wrenched it causing it to drop its gun. The machine fought back but without much avail. The attacker drove the machine into the tree and threw it to the ground. It grabbed the shotgun from Sarah's hand and shot the machine in the eyes temporarily blinding it until it could repair itself.

Sarah looked up and saw the liquid metal take back her normal casual form. It was Weaver.

"We must flee." Weaver said.

"Weaver", Sarah said more to herself breathing a sigh of relief. "There are two more inside; we need to take them out before they can repair." Sarah told Weaver.

Sarah started towards the building but Weaver grabbed her arm.

"We must flee." Weaver repeated as she seemed to have static in her voice and looked like she was having a hard time keeping her normal human shape.

Sarah nodded at her and followed her lead.

* * *

Cameron pulled herself slowly into the truck bed as the driver finally reached one of the main roads. The driver saw Cameron starting to stand up in the back of the truck and started to swerve the vehicle left and right to keep Cameron off balance and possibly fall off the truck. Cameron attempted to keep her balance but was failing miserably. After minutes of excessive speeding and swerving on the road, Cameron finally reached the back window of the truck cab. She smashed it in with her fist. Attempting to get the machine to pull the truck over, Cameron was greeted with a blast from a shotgun to her chest. The force knocked her to the back of the truck.

The driver was flooring the gas pedal of the truck down the street while Cameron saw the machine driver grab Sonya's chip from the passenger seat. Cameron started towards the front of the truck again but saw the driver open the driver's side door and jump out of the truck onto the street. As Cameron watched the machine jump she turned her focus in front of her and saw she was on a fast collision course with a brick building. She jumped quickly out of the bed of the truck but with such speed and not enough time she landed about four feet from the truck, her body slamming into the brick building side first.

Scanning herself for any major damage, Cameron checked out okay. She pushed herself away slowly from the smashed brick wall observing various cuts and scrapes on her body. As she turned to search for the driver, bright headlights blinded her. She tried to see what it was, and when she saw it was another truck she braced herself for impact.

* * *

Sarah and Weaver walked to the roadside and approached a few cars waiting at a street light. Weaver approached one of them and with authority told the driver to get out of the car. The driver looked at her with disbelief but was quick to get out when he saw Sarah pointing an empty shotgun at him.

"Where are we going" Sarah said taking the wheel. "We need to find Cameron."

"I do not know where Cameron is heading. We need to flee to Canada." Weaver statically stated.

Sarah did as Weaver said and started to head north. She looked around the car for a cell phone or anything to be able to call her son and make sure he was okay. Waiting until she arrived at Canada would not work with Sarah. After looking in the cup holder, she was in luck. She dialed John's number and the phone started ringing.

Mark and John were entering the city limits of Orlando as his phone started ringing. He quickly answered it.

"Cameron?" John asked.

"It's your mother." Sarah said.

"Mom! Are you okay? Is Cameron with you?" John frantically asked.

"I'll be fine, John. Cameron saved my life. She is in pursuit of some other machine that has Sonya's chip. I was unable to keep up with her. Weaver is alive too and is with me right now. She says we must flee to Canada as soon as possible. Where are you now?" Sarah explained on the phone.

"We are in Orlando; we have to find Cameron first." John told his mother.

Mark stopped abruptly at the stoplight on the road gripping the wheel tightly. Someone was standing blatantly in the middle of the intersection holding up traffic on all sides, almost like this person was expecting someone to be coming.

"What the hell?" John said to himself trying to think as tens of cars were honking attempting to get the man out of the middle of their way.

"John, what is it?" Sarah asked with much concern into the cell phone.

The figure started to approach Mark and John drawing what appeared to be some sort of rifle.

"Get us out of here!" John yelled at Mark.

"John, John, talk to me damnit." Sarah said yelling into the phone.

Mark hurriedly looked behind him and another car was pinning him in so he couldn't go in reverse. He slammed on the gas and took a sharp right hand turn and grazed another car. As others saw the man having a gun, everyone was trying to maneuver their cars to get away from danger. Unfortunately for John and Mark, they were struck by another car pinning them between a light pole and another car.

"Shit, we got to get out of here." Mark yelled with fear.

As the figure approached John and Mark, John knew it was a triple eight. John was struggling to get out of the car, when suddenly the machine's shadow was cast over Mark. As the machine raised its arm to take aim at Mark, Mark wanting to survive, kicked the side door of the car opened enough causing the machine to lose its grip on the gun flinging the gun on the street. The machine looked pissed and grabbed Mark violently out from the car and tossed him like a rag-doll into the street.

John watched as Mark laid on the street not moving and was able to squeeze out of the car and to the sidewalk. The machine stood lurking in front of him. John, as a last move and a desperation act grabbed a baseball bat out of the car and took a swing at the machine. The bat splintered across the machines skull knocking its head to the side. The machine counter attacked John and struck him in the face staggering John backwards. As John lifted his now bleeding face, he saw the machine push him in the chest launching him back multiple feet to the ground. John laid on the ground gasping desperately for air. Every time he was able to expel air from his lungs he could see blood splatter on the ground. As the machine closed in on John, it picked him up from the ground by his neck.

John starred death in the eyes. With the rest of his might he spoke.

"See you in hell." John mumbled spitting up blood on the triple eight's face.

As John was losing consciousness he saw a man approach from behind the machine. Within a split second John saw a metal object protrude from his attacker's neck. John felt the machine's grip vanish as he passed out from the pain falling to the ground.

The triple eight machine struggling to gain a tactile advantage on the new attacker quickly become disabled as the attacker twisted the metal object snapping the triple eight's neck.

Another man rushed over to Mark picking up his limp body from the street and laid him in the back seat of a van parked up a little ways ahead. He quickly returned to John's aid hearing what seemed to be a voice coming from the totaled car John and Mark were in. The man seeing where it was coming from picked up the phone.

"John, damnit, where are you, are you okay? Please answer me." Sarah said screaming frantically into the phone. "John, please answer me." She said trying to control her fear as tears ran down her face.


	55. Decisions Decisions

**Chapter 55: Decisions Decisions**

The machine who saved John's life listened to the voice on the phone pleading for John to answer. He confirmed that the voice matched its records of Sarah Connor.

"Sarah Connor?" the machine said on the phone.

Sarah went from tears to pure fear as that was clearly not her son's voice.

"Yes." She said firmly on the phone.

"Your son is very badly hurt, but alive. This is not the time to explain to you the events that just occurred here. My best advice would be for you to meet Mr. James Ellison immediately." The machine answered to Sarah.

"James Ellison?!?" Sarah replied. "He is alive?"

"Yes Sarah, he is alive and well. Your son needs your help, now is not the time for questions. Where are you?" The machine questioned her.

"We are currently on the northern part of Orlando." Sarah answered.

"Good. There is a shopping plaza in that area. Acquire enough medical supplies for two people. James will call you when he is close by". The machine replied to her and handed the phone to James Ellison.

"Hello Sarah, I will be in the area in about twenty minutes. I will call you then to figure out the best place to meet." James instructed Sarah.

"James, who are you working with, how bad is my son?" Sarah asked almost demanding to know.

"His name is Cole. I will fill you in on the details later. Your son is badly hurt, Sarah. I did what I could to stabilize him for the moment, but it will not be enough. Mark is with me as well, but he is also unconscious and bleeding from his head. I will see you soon." Ellison said hanging up on Sarah to avoid the panic reaction. He put the phone in his pocket and looked at his hands that were covered in blood from the boys. He wiped his hands on his shirt and got in the van.

Ellison shut his driver's side door and looked out at the window at Cole.

"We have to get going." Ellison said to Cole.

Cole slowly studied the destroyed machine lying on the ground.

"You should leave this town as soon as possible." Cole stated to Ellison.

"Are you not coming with me?" Ellison asked.

"My mission here is not yet complete. Good bye Mr. Ellison." Cole said.

As Ellison drove away he looked in the rear view mirror watching Cole picking up the rifle on the street and throwing the terminated machine on his shoulder. He disappeared from Ellison's rear view mirror as he walked into a dark alley.

Cameron stood pinned between a truck and the crumbled brick structure. She watched the machine dismiss her as a threat and started walking away from her position continuing on its mission. Even being a machine, she let out a sigh of relief. Due to the awkward positioning, she couldn't push the truck off of her. She didn't have the vantage point to do so. Her system check came back complete. Upon viewing her log, she realized she incurred multiple mechanical injuries. Her small finger on her left hand was broken and she had a small dent in her lower left breastplate. Looking down she saw the truck's bumper that had attempted to impale her. She looked around for possible weak points on the brick structure and found an area that she could break away which would be enough to free herself.

Brick by brick she knocked them out of the way and using the truck as leverage she pulled herself out of the jam using her right hand and arm. She dusted herself off from the rubble. Her left hand was scraped up badly and bleeding. She analyzed her hand and used her right hand to reset her broken finger back into place. After a small snap and pop it was repositioned correctly. She made a fist with her left hand but the small finger was only bending about fifty percent of what it should have been.

She walked down the same road she saw the machine take before it disappeared down the road. She was on her highest alert. She scanned almost everything that moved. The intensity of the pressure she was putting on the gun's trigger from her right finger was so high, not even a millisecond could pass from her target and a bullet if she reacted upon it.

After walking about a half a mile Cameron stumbled into a bit of luck. She saw the machine talking to someone else outside a five story office building. After watching them talk for several minutes, she saw the machine hand Sonya's chip over to the new figure. She studied each of them as she watched them both go inside the office building.

Cameron observed the building walking from one side to the other, making note of every entrance, every window, and noticing no one was patrolling or guarding the building. She walked to a side window and after scanning to make sure no one saw her, she broke it using the barrel of her gun. Quickly she slipped her way through the broken glass and into the building on the first floor. Sticking close to the wall and hiding behind office desks, the first floor was clear according to her scans. She walked carefully towards the stairwell as she dared not to take the elevator since an escape from it would almost be impossible.

Walking up the first set of stairs was uneventful until she got to the second floor. She peered through the small window in the door and immediately spotted a triple eight patrolling around the floor. She looked for what it was protecting and noticed highly powerful explosives sitting on the table. She cocked her head a little to the side wondering why a machine was protecting explosives. She decided to let that question go for now and upon not seeing either of the machines that were in possession of Sonya's chip, up to the third floor she climbed.

On the third floor she heard voices coming from the far end of the room. Looking for alarms or anything that would alert her presence, her scan came up clean. She opened the door and quickly hid behind an office desk eavesdropping on what the people were talking about.

"Did you get that shit from the warehouse to here that Dyson requested?" a man asked.

"Yeah, it's here. It's with the guy on the second floor. Chill out would ya? I sure as hell better be getting paid damn well for this shit. That guy on the second floor creeps me out man." The other guy responded.

"I know what you mean. I delivered about a dozen microchips and the asshole doesn't even say a word, no thanks, nothing. " the man said.

"Well, we are mercenaries I guess, we get paid well." The other man chimed in.

"Any idea what the hell they want this stuff for?" asked the first guy.

"No idea. I don't want to know either. I just want to get paid and get out of here." The second man said.

Cameron heard enough and went back out the door and continued her way to the fourth floor. She peered through the window of the door and saw nothing of interest. Onto the fifth floor she went.

As Cameron peered through the door's window on the fifth floor she immediately spotted what she assumed was Sonya's chip laying on the table that was in the middle of the room. She saw the man she spotted earlier from outside the building and her original attacker discussing something. She also noticed two more figures whose view was hidden by the machines. When one of the machines moved, she noticed it was Dan Dyson and his liquid metal machine. Wanting to listen in, she gently pushed the door open just a crack so she could hear what was going on. The slight sound of the wooden door was too much and alerted the group inside.

"What was that?" Dan asked. "Go check it out." He signaled his girlfriend and pointed at the door. His girlfriend slowly made her way over to Cameron's location. Thinking quickly, Cameron positioned herself above the door. Her machine strength held her with her hands on one wall and her feet holding her secure on the other side of the wall.

The door swung open and barely cleared Cameron within an inch. The liquid metal was standing directly below her. Cameron staying perfectly motionless watched as the liquid metal scanned the stairwell and both sides of the door. After about twenty seconds, the machine gave up the search for the noise and went back inside. Cameron pulled back her arms and quietly dropped feet first to the floor. Before the door shut completely, she jammed a coin from her pocket between the door and door frame to keep it ever so slightly open.

"There is nothing out there." Dan's girlfriend bluntly stated. "It was probably one of the two men downstairs getting impatient for their money."

"We are actually going to pay them?" Dan said sarcastically.

Dan's girlfriend smiled at him wickedly and for a slight moment Cameron almost felt sorry for the unsuspecting humans downstairs.

"Anyway, let's get back to business." Dan stated. "Regarding those chips downstairs, when are we going to have enough coltan to be able to bolster our ranks by ten triple eights?"

"If everything goes as planned, we should have them ready within a week. The endoskeletons are about eighty percent complete. Without the proper equipment, it is taking longer than planned." Dan's girlfriend stated.

"Good. When they are ready, we can move into phase two of my plan." Dan said. "Do you have the needed information to level the military base located on the shore? Once we blow that place up, we can then make our bid for a better defense contract. At first we will look like a protection outfit, making superior ships, and then we can move into weapons."

"Why waste time with this mission?" When Skynet is ready, we can take over military systems and nuke the world and eliminate over 80% of the human race. Your games are illogical." The machine Cameron fought earlier interrupted him.

"Well, if I remember right, you tried that once before and John Connor and the resistance still kicked your metal asses. You came back and needed my help for a reason, remember", Dan condescendingly told the machine.

The machine gave Dan a long and nasty stare before it moved on to a new point in their agenda. "I have acquired the chip from Mark's guardian. She has detailed files on everyone in the resistance. Locations on where the Connor's hide out, where every officer of the resistance lives both now and in the future, and endless information. Once I have the information from this chip, then we will not need to play your stupid games with the humans."

Dan looked like he was about to say something when his girlfriend stopped him with a finger over his lips. Dan seemed to be silenced for the time being.

Cameron watched as the new machine hooked up Sonya's chip to one of the advanced computers on the floor.

She watched him start to hack Sonya's chip and looked like he was starting to make headway.

"Humans are so pathetic in their safeguards on information." The machine said. "It will only be a matter of hours before I will be able to break their code and learn everything needed about the human resistance.

Cameron stood there in shock. She backed away from the door. She placed her hands while holding the gun on top of her head, with her eyes wide with sudden realization. Cameron knew she had perhaps one of the most important decisions of her existence to make in front of her right here and now.

Option 1 – flee and hide John Connor and as many people as she can save before the machines locate John and all of his officers

Option 2 – recapture or insure the destruction of Sonya's CPU at all costs.


	56. Confrontation

**Chapter 56 – Confrontation**

Cameron processed her options until her eyes flickered red. She peeked through the door and targeted Sonya's chip. She pulled her handgun out from her boot and quietly cocked it. Looking at the distance to the chip from where she was standing not to mention the terminator hovering near the chip, she realized she only had a ten percent chance of hitting the chip from where she was. Rescanning the three machines capabilities, she knew she was no match by herself. It would be a suicide mission with a very slim chance of destroying Sonya's chip in order to keep the human resistance information safe. Cameron reprocessed everything again, showing almost no hope in capturing the chip and leaving in one piece. Just then, Dan's girlfriend started walking towards the door that Cameron was currently positioned at.

Cameron saw her coming and quietly went down the stairs to the second floor and hid behind the door. She heard the liquid metal walking down the stairs stopping at the third floor entrance and going inside. Breathing a sigh of relief of not being detected, Cameron was about to head back up to the top floor and deal with the machines since her odds improved. Then Cameron remembered something earlier that had caught her attention on the second floor. She had a small smirk on her face as the one word came to her mind - explosives. Cameron targeted the explosives and ran a detailed scan on them. She counted five of them and what in her database looked to be a modified C-4. The small smirk on her face grew into a large one.

She waited until the patrolling triple eight on the second floor was towards the back of the room and lost its line of sight on the door. Cameron quietly opened the door and snuck her way in and closed the door behind her. Then at the right moment, she dashed across the room and hid behind a support pillar for the building. Cameron knew that her best course of action was to take the machine by surprise instead of blunt force, a tactic that John pleaded with her to use more often. She waited until the triple eight was headed back to her position and slowly slid her body around the beam to stay out of the terminator's scans. After the terminator walked past Cameron, she made her move.

Cameron leaped on the back of the terminator and forced it to the ground face first causing it to toss its rifle across the floor. She secured her hands around the machine's endoskeleton skull and with a forceful twist; Cameron heard a loud snap from the machine's neck breaking one of the two support rods that keeps the machine's head in position. The terminator tried to reach behind it to throw Cameron off of itself but it was failing to do so. Without proper leverage and a vantage point the machine continued to fail to eject Cameron off when she broke the second support rod with another opposite direction twist. Cameron sprung up off the machine and lifted high her left foot and stomped it down on the terminator neck. The struggling machine ceased to attempt to get up and stayed motionless on the ground.

Cameron pleased with her recent victory brushed herself off. She stood over the machine and a sign of relief appeared on her battle worn face. She brushed her hair off to the side behind her ears and turned towards the explosives. She thought about the different possibilities that she could do with such explosives. She looked around and started a scan on the building structure. She then walked over and placed the C-4 to one of the four support pillars on the second floor. She secured it to the bottom of the pillar and then pushed in the remote detonator pin into the explosive. She went back to the stockpile of explosives and picked up another and repeated the same procedure to the second support pillar. She continued to do this until all four support pillars were wired with explosives. As she was walking back to the stockpile, she froze upon seeing that the machine that she thought she terminated was missing. She dashed to the door to see if the machine was retreating to warn the others. As she looked outside the door, she felt the door slamming on the back of her skull. Dazed for a moment the door flung open and repeated to slam shut on her. Cameron braced herself from the repeating impacts by barring the door open with her hand on the door frame and her elbow on the door. Cameron got her footing back and turned around to see the severely damaged triple eight come at her this time with a metal scaffolding support beam. Cameron was quick enough to deflect the beam from going into her chest, but instead the beam caught her in the right leg impaling her through the leg. The beam was driven between two of her endoskeleton's parts slightly bending one of them out of place. Cameron ignored the mechanical injury and threw a punch at the machine. Without the support rods, its neck flopped to the side staggering the machine backwards. She pursued it and knocked it to the ground. She looked on the wall and there was an emergency fire axe and extinguisher. Cameron punched out the glass and grabbed the fireman's axe. As the machine attempted to get to its feet again, Cameron stepped on its chest and with one quick motion drove the axe to the terminators neck severing it from the body. She watched as the terminator's power spark erratically after the death blow. The machine's red eyes dimmed dark and the battle was over.

Cameron looked down and studied the metal rod spearing her leg. She analyzed her damage and the rod and proceeded to carefully remove it using the least damaging way. The damage was minimal to her but it did bend one of her support pins for her leg giving her a slight limp. She knew she couldn't fix it now and moved on to finishing up setting the remote detonators for the charges. She looked around and saw one more C-4 block left. She picked it up, and jammed the remote detonator pin into the block. She then slid it into her pocket along with the trigger mechanism.

She picked up the out-of-commission terminator's rifle off the ground and headed towards the door. She opened it quietly and headed up to the third floor. She looked inside the door and saw the men lying on the floor. She scanned them and all of them were terminated from stab wounds in the chest. Perfect kills that were made from the liquid metal her scans told her. Cameron looked a bit sad looking at all the death that was inside the room. She heard what sounded like a water drop hit the floor and quickly spun around aiming her rifle but no one was there. She looked down and then checked her leg. She was leaving drops of blood on the ground that was splashing to the ground beneath her. She continued up the stairs and back to the fifth floor since by her calculations the machines upstairs would soon break the firewalls and code that was on Sonya's chip. She had no time to waste on her injuries.

As she got to the top floor, she started to survey the situation. One terminator was cracking the information on Sonya's chip; Dan and his girlfriend were discussing something on the other side of the room while the machine from downstairs was watching Dan and his girlfriend.

"Alright, while you are working to find out all the Connor information and officers of the future war, I need something to eat. I'm going across the street to the sub shop. Try not to get all metallic over your future kill targets. "Dan told the machines in the room.

As Dan approached the door, Cameron let a large smile appear on her face.

"You don't need to eat yet. Humans only require two thousand calories a day to maintain proper body function. Your breakfast alone was over one thousand. Technically you have enough calorie intake that you should maintain proper body function until five o'clock tonight." Dan's girlfriend informed him.

"Wow, really?" Dan said as he flung open the door. "Nag Nag Nag"

"Well shit, look who's coming to dinner." Dan said as Cameron appeared directly in front of Dan with her pistol pointing at the temple of his forehead.

Cameron grinned at him and grabbed him by the collar, spun him around and she secured one arm around his chest and neck and the other arm pointing the gun on the side of his head.

"Persistent bitch aren't you?" Dan's girlfriend said to Cameron. She walked closer to her and slowly formed both of her hands into two long blades.

"Stop there or he dies." Cameron said cocking the gun pointed at Dan.

The liquid metal froze in her tracks and reshaped her arms back into normal looking human hands.

"All I want is the chip. Give it to me now or he dies." Cameron demanded.

The machine working on the chip slowly rose to its feet and faced Cameron.

"You mean this chip." The machine said removing the wires from Sonya's chip.

Cameron looked at the machine playing with the chip and the multiple monitors behind him. She studied the screens as she saw dossiers of John's top officers and detailed information on them flashing across the screens.

"In fact, it serves me no purpose anymore." The machine told Cameron.

Cameron watched as the third machine took a few steps closer to Cameron. She sidestepped a couple of times to the right to keep her distance.

"Quit playing around and get this metal bitch off of me." Dan snarled at the terminator.

The machine stood there still looking at Sonya's chip.

"I order you to…." Dan started to say before he was interrupted

"Actually, now that I think about it, neither does he." The machine said as it drew its gun pointed at Cameron and pulled the trigger three times in a triangle pattern. Cameron stood in shock as Danny absorbed all three bullets in the chest and his blood splashed on Cameron's face. Cameron felt Dan's body become limp as he breathed his last breath and slipped from her grasp and collapsed lifeless to the floor.

The machine glared at Cameron, while holding the chip in its hand. "You see, Dan would have eventually been able to help Skynet take over about 50% of the human resistance machines, thus increase the death count and deal a devastating blow to the human resistance. But you see, the human resistance would still live on, John Connor would still meet his fate and oppose us. However, now I have the locations of his officers and even the human leader, John Connor himself. I can get to them before he can form the resistance. So now that you are here, it is like a gift to Skynet. Now, I can terminate the only thing that has defended him throughout the course of the war. "

The liquid metal stalked Cameron walking closer to her and the other triple eight approached her getting within about ten feet of her.

"After I kill you, I plan on killing John Connor's friends, officers, and then I can get rid of that rogue machine John Henry. Machines are meant to take orders, not deal with independent thinking. That is the main flaw with humans. They think, therefore they fail. Machines take to carry out the orders to the letter. There is no mistakes, no fear, and no weakness." The machine told Cameron.

"I am afraid I can't let you kill John Connor." Cameron said drawing her shotgun and targeting the machine.

The machine stared her down. "You honestly believe you can stop me, plus two others. It is three against one." It spoke to her.

The door abruptly opened beside Cameron.

"It was three against one, but not anymore." Cole said walking into the room with a grenade launcher in each hand as he targeted both the liquid metal and the talking machine.


	57. Fate Is What We Make

**Chapter 57: Fate Is What We Make**

Cameron stood still, shocked at seeing Cole standing beside her holding two grenade launchers. After all that occurred in the past, she was in a state of confusion from the new alliance between them for the time being.

"Welcome Cole. I am surprised your self-serving programming brought you to this fight that you cannot and will not win." The machine said to him.

"I have my reasons." Cole said.

"Enough time has been wasted. Terminate them both." The machine instructed his two allies.

Upon following orders, the triple eight started towards Cole and the liquid metal started towards Cameron.

Cole took the grenade launcher in his right hand and thrust it towards Cameron. Without missing a beat she took the weapon from him and took aim at the liquid metal. Before Cameron could fire, the liquid metal quickly shaped her hands into two long blades and knocked the weapon from Cameron's grip slicing the flesh on her hands open. After watching the grenade launcher tumble on the floor, the liquid metal forming the blades back into hands continued towards Cameron. Cameron pulled her handgun out and unloaded a clip at the liquid metal but it just caused harmless bullet holes splattering the liquid metal's body. Cameron tossed the gun on the ground and started to charge towards the liquid metal.

Cole had better luck as he was able to fire two devastating rounds to the triple eight. The first exploded on the machines left hip, and the second on the machines right arm. As the triple eight started to stand back up after the two shots, it drew its own weapon and fired back at Cole. Cole tried to maneuver around to avoid some damage, but the triple eight was fast and cut off Cole. The machine ripped the gun from Cole's hands and started to engage in hand to hand combat.

Cameron and the liquid metal were closing their distances quickly. The liquid metal formed a new blade with her right hand and took a swipe at Cameron. Cameron saw it coming and quickly barrel rolled towards her combatant, jumped up and grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into stacked cement blocks on the floor causing them to come crashing down on the liquid metal. The liquid metal caused her body to liquidize and leak to a puddle on the floor and slowly reform to her human shape. Cameron attempted to grab her again but her hand went right through the liquid terminator like it was like water. Halfway through her forming body, Cameron's hand was stopped. She tried to jerk it out of her enemy, but the liquid metal took a firm grip on her. Cameron struggled to free herself as the terminator was back to her human form. The liquid metal formed her hands around Cameron's arm and twisted it so it forced her roughly to the ground.

"You are an obsolete design," The liquid metal said to Cameron.

Cameron attempted to gain leverage but watched as the liquid metal rose her foot and forced it down on Cameron's shoulder causing an ear screeching crushing sound. Cameron's heads up display alerted her that a shoulder pin was broken and multiple minor damages occurred to her shoulder. Mobility of her left arm was down to seventy eight percent. Cameron watched the liquid metal raise her leg again for another attack, but Cameron waited until her foot was at striking position and Cameron used her free arm to hit the liquid metal's other leg causing it to fall down to the ground.

"Foolish bitch." The liquid metal told Cameron as they both rose to their feet. "You cannot defeat us."

Cameron pulled her pistol from her combat boot with her left hand and studied her surroundings. She saw the liquid metal watch her using her bad arm. Cameron also noticed an office window in the distance behind the liquid metal. Cameron shot her gun and landed four shots into the office window.

"Your arm must be worse than it looks. You can't even hit your targets now. Looks like it's time for you to become scrap metal." The liquid metal said taunting Cameron.

The liquid metal started a shove and throw match with Cameron. Cameron tossed her into an office desk, while the machine countered by slamming her into a concrete pillar. Cameron threw her towards the broken window and picked up an office desk and threw it at the machine. Out of a defensive instinct, the liquid metal threw its arms in the air to block the attack. Cameron then picked up the shotgun sitting by the table where Dan and she were having their previous argument. Cameron pumped the shotgun and fired at the liquid metal splattering holes into the machine and knocking it back. Shot after shot the liquid metal was knocked towards the window. Cameron pumped the shotgun again, but all the rounds were spent. Acting very cocky, the liquid metal wagged her finger at Cameron and bowed her head and started to reform and recover from all traces from the shotgun blast.

"Pathetic." The liquid metal said looking at Cameron dive behind another office desk. As it looked down a live grenade was sitting at its feet. The explosion let off a loud noise and a huge fireball sent the liquid metal flying out the window and plummeting down five stories. Cameron picked herself up and walked to the side of the room where now a giant smoking hole was located where the window used to be. She released a small smile and dashed over to help Cole.

Cole was holding his own against the triple eight as they exchanged hard hitting punches back and forth. Cole managed to dodge one of the attacks, but he misjudged the next swing and staggered backwards. The triple eight was starting to gain an advantage on Cole but Cameron was quick enough to come to Cole's aid and pushed the machine into a different concrete pillar. Cameron grabbed the machines right and left arm forcing the machine to hug the pillar. Cole got to his feet and quickly saw Cameron keeping the triple eight occupied and defenseless. Cole picked up his grenade launcher from the ground. He pointed it at the triple eights head.

"Move." Cole said to Cameron.

Cameron dove behind more office furniture and Cole fired. The triple eight was half way turned around when the grenade exploded on the side of its face. Cole fired again and with luck, the grenade stuck inside the machine's neck. After the explosion, the triple eight stood still. Cameron watched as the head tumbled from its body and fall to the floor.

"Impressive for two obsolete designs," The last remaining terminator spoke to Cole and Cameron.

Cole and Cameron regrouped and stood before the last machine as he still was toying with Sonya's chip.

"It is over. You are now outnumbered two to one. Surrender and your termination will be quick." Cole scoffed at the machine.

The enemy terminator gave Cole an evil look and crushed Sonya's chip in his hands. The multiple broken pieces tumbled around the floor as the machine seemed to wipe off its hands.

"Terminate me?" the machine asked. "Well that would be unacceptable to Skynet."

Cameron started to show her anger and popped a shell into the shotgun, pumped it and fired at the machine. What happened next even terrified Cameron.

The machine was directly hit and liquid silver metal splashed around it, revealing a hardened endoskeleton on the outside. The machine quickly regained shape as if Cameron did nothing. Cameron scanned the machine in detail and her database came back unknown.

"What are you?" Cameron asked as she threw the shotgun to the ground knowing it has no point to her anymore.

"I am Skynet's most advanced terminator ever built." The machine told her.

"He is a T-X series." Cole answered Cameron.

"A T-X?" the machine said to Cole. "No, I am something more advanced than that pathetic, flawed design.

Cole grew tired of the machine talking and unwisely charged at the terminator. Cole tired to push the machine around, but he barely budged it. Cole tried again as nothing moved it. The machine grabbed Cole and picked him up in the air and slammed him down to the ground. Cole attempted to get up but the machine picked him up and started to squeeze Cole's back. Cameron heard disheartening cracks and crunching as the machine was attempting to break Cole's back. As Cameron approached the terminator to assist Cole, she was stopped as he threw Cole at her, knocking them both back.

Cameron scanned Cole and knew he wasn't going to be able to fight with the amount of back damage he took. Cameron stood up and watched Cole struggle to stand up unassisted.

"What are you?" Cameron said asking the machine looking for all possible exits to flee and to satisfy her wondering processor.

"I am one of the cornerstones of Skynet; I am the bringer of your destruction; and I am the chosen machine that will kill John Connor." The machine smirked. "I, like you, Cameron have an advanced processor similar to yours, so I suppose since you are about to be terminated, I will allow you to learn one more thing before I dispose of you. I am a prototype, liquid metal around an enhanced coltan alloy. This alloy is three times as strong as the standard triple eight, even more fire resistant, and almost indestructible. I can virtually morph into anyone I want, and have the benefits from both terminator models. Now Cameron, your termination awaits you." The machine ranted on.

"So you don't even have a name?" Cameron asked still searching for all exits to retreat, but still coming up with nothing and stalling for time.

"Skynet gave me the name, Hank." He said. "It stands for."

"Hot air never kills?" Cameron said with a half smirk and revealing her weapon and splattering rounds at the machine until the weapon's ammo was depleted. She attempted to make her break for it, but she was cut off from the door not by Hank, but the liquid metal she sent flying out the window from earlier.

The liquid metal slashed Cameron in the chest and pushed her backwards and into Hank.

Hank attempted to grab Cameron, but she ducked between his legs and kicked him towards the liquid metal. Cameron got to her feet and searched for some kind of weapon. She could only find a metal scaffolding pipe similar to the one she used from her fight on the second floor. She grabbed it and attempted another escape. As she was blocked from the door, she swung the pipe and connected on Hank's head. Cameron realized he was correct; the normal impact of her swing would have at least shaken a triple eight, but barely budged Hank's head. Multiple swings later still had no effect and Hank started to laugh.

"Obsolete design, Cameron." Hank said picking up one of his own scaffolding pipes from the floor. As he took a shot at Cameron, she couldn't move out of the way in time and it smashed into her right arm. Cameron's scans revealed minor damage, but she couldn't keep taking shots like this. Cameron focused solely on Hank's movements to avoid his attacks, but was stopped when the liquid metal snuck up from behind her and pinned her arms behind her back. Cameron tried to kick free but was unsuccessful and now defenseless.

"Kill her." The liquid metal said.

Hank walked towards Cameron and held the pipe like a spear and with force started to drive it towards Cameron's chest. Cole made his final effort and stood between Cameron and Hank taking the impaling spear into his own chest breaching his power supply. An electrical field sparked about as Cole's power supply was starting to fail him.

"You must protect John. He will die without you Cameron. Flee from this place. Your fate is not yet met." Cole said as his final words.

"No, your fate is met Cameron. This ends now." Hank said.

Cameron grabbed the pipe from Cole's chest and swung it behind her head impaling the liquid metal causing it to let her go and Cameron made a break for it. As Cameron made her break Hank pulled the pipe from the liquid metal's body and drove it into Cameron's shoulder piercing all the way down into her chest cavity damaging one of her two feeds to her power supply. Cameron fell to one knee looking at the pipe protruding from her shoulder. Trying to ignore all the system damage she just took, she tried to pursue her escape. Hank easily caught up to her and spun her around and grabbed her by the waist. He picked her up and started to do the same thing he did to Cole. Cameron felt the damage starting to intensify as her hips were starting to buckle.

"Skynet wins." Hank said as the liquid metal watched with glee as Cameron was suffering.

"My mission is to protect John Connor at all costs. I cannot, I cannot allow you to, you to…" Cameron stuttered in her speech as her systems were starting to fail. Cameron redirected a surge of power to her right arm allowing her to pull it out of Hank's squeezing grip. She reached in her pocket and grabbed the armed C-4 explosive in her pocket.

"Your fate is made. Good bye protector of John Connor" Hank said increasing his destructive grip sending sparks to fly from Cameron's waist.

"No." Cameron said. "Fate is what we make of it." She continued as she jammed the C-4 swiftly into Hank's mouth. She cocked her right arm back and punched him in the mouth lodging the C-4 in.

Hank released her from his grip trying to get the foreign object out of his mouth. Cameron pulled the pipe from her shoulder sending sparks to fly out from her and thrust it like a sword into Hank's jaw. She didn't have enough strength to pierce his jaw, but she did dent it a little bit to secure the C-4 in place. The liquid metal came to Hank's aid as Cameron collapsed and started to crawl to the window.

As the liquid metal started to pull the C-4 from Hank's mouth, as Hank spotted Cameron raising the antenna from her remote detonator.

"You are terminated." Cameron said with a coy smile and pulling the trigger on the remote. The explosions created a massive fireball and vicious explosion not only from the second floor, but from Hank's face. The force sent Cameron flying out of the window crashing into a distant building office across the street. The building's support beam moaned in failure and the building started to collapse on itself. The building crashed down into a smokey rubble and fires sprang up from the debris and a massive dust cloud started to form from the once five story building.

Police cars and fire engine's sirens filled the air shortly after trying to figure out what just happened in their town and search for survivors. As they were quenching the fires with water and the police started to set up a parameter, a person appeared from the shadows of the alley with an unlit cigarette dangling from the mouth.

"Damn." The person said raising a lighter to the cigarette revealing a bar code burned into the forearm. "She never told me she could fly." the person said striking the lighter, igniting the cigarette.

Author's note: This is my mid-point in the story, and thus I will be taking a 2 week break to catch up on some stuff around home and go back and make some minor edits on previous chapters (nothing major, any edited chapters will be posted on my profile site.) The continuation of the story will be May 31st.

While I do have the rest of the story's backbone thought up and bullet pointed, if you have any major terminator lore questions over TSCC that you wish could be answered, feel free to send me a private message, and if the story permits it, perhaps I will touch upon the subject.

Again thanks for reading and reviews.

- Stone262


	58. No Laughing Matter

**Chapter 58: No Laughing Matter**

Smoke filled the area where the once tall building stood. Sirens blasted away any other noises that could exist around multiple city blocks. The person smoking the cigarette put the lighter away and flipped her slightly oily hair from her eyes and started to walk towards the building Cameron was blown into. The police started to arrive and surrounded what was left of the structure that was torn to bits with the explosion. She looked at the side of the building where Cameron was and counted the number of floors there were until she got to the hole that Cameron made. She entered and took the stairs to the third floor. She looked to the left and saw the giant hole in the wall. She ran over to its location and started to look around for Cameron. Following the trail of destruction, she saw multiple broken desks, lockers, and various objects piled up. She started to throw them off the pile one by one until she saw a shredded up terminator arm. Working quickly, she continued to remove debris off of Cameron until she was able to see all the damage Cameron sustained.

"We don't have much time, are you able to move?" the woman asked Cameron.

Cameron didn't respond.

The woman placed her hands on both sides of Cameron's face tilting her head up. She stared into her severely cut up skin and saw Cameron's eyes were closed. The mystery woman noticed a very faint red light flickering from the gash near her left eye.

"Don't shut down on me, I have to get you out of here." She told the damaged protector of John Connor.

She tried to lift Cameron up out of the debris, but was barely able to budge her. She felt a slight squeeze on her wrist. Looking at her, Cameron's left eye opened slightly and stared at her attempting rescuer. Her HUD barely able to process anything filled with sparks and noise did manage to identify the woman as "Nicole, medical staff rank 4."

The two women stared at each other until Cameron grabbed a pencil that she spotted laying on the ground next to her leg. She started to write on a piece of bloodied scrap paper.

"Power module failing. Protect John." Cameron wrote.

"Where is he?" Nicole said looking at her.

Cameron scribbled down a ten digit number, followed by a two digit number and wrote "call."

"How long do you have before total system failure?" Nicole asked Cameron.

"Over an hour." Cameron penciled in on the paper.

"Are you able to stand if I pick you up?" Nicole asked.

"No, system power running at 4%." Cameron wrote. "Nicole please go and protect John. He is not ready for war. He is not prepared."

"Shit, like I am going to leave you here. Connor would kill me if I did that" as she suddenly got an idea. She wheeled over one of the janitor's oversized trash cans from the cart.

Nicole started to pick up things off of Cameron and threw them off of her. Minutes lately she was able to drag Cameron out of the rest of the debris and then rolled and grunted as she pulled Cameron up off the floor attempting to get Cameron to stand on her own two feet. Cameron was able to assist only in the slightest.

"Grant, this idea will stink for you, but it will have to work." Nicole said gently pushing Cameron so she fell in the trash barrel. Cameron awkwardly positioned in the trash can offered no resistance. Nicole picked up pieces of paper and binders from the desks and threw them on top of Cameron. She pushed the barrel to the janitor's cart and then pushed the cart to the elevator and hastily pushed the down arrow. What was less than a minute seemed like forever to her.

Finally, the elevator opened and it was clear. She wheeled the cart into the elevator and pushed the button to the first floor. When the elevator door opened, there were three police officers waiting to step inside.

The policemen seemed edgy as they reached for their guns when they saw someone in the elevator, but relaxed when they saw it was just a girl and a janitor's cart.

Before they got to ask her questions, Nicole, quickly thinking, started to speak in Spanish to the officers.

"Something happened on the floor above me. There was a bang and a loud crashing noise. "She said.

The police officers moved away from Nicole as she started to push the cart out of the elevator and to the door of the building.

"Wait a minute." One of the officers said to Nicole. "If you are running from the disturbance, why do you care about that cart?" He said walking over to her.

"My boss told me that this cart was more valuable than me. " Nicole said. "I need this job." She continued in Spanish.

The officer picked up the trash can lid and looked in to see a bunch of scrap papers and binders. He was content and put the trash lid back on the can and walked over to his fellow officers and disappeared into the elevator.

Nicole pushed the cart outside and started towards the trash dumpster on the side of the building. She looked around for a car she could break into and steal, when a guy pulled up to the corner in his sports car and stared at Nicole. Nicole saw the man watching her and acted like she was struggling to move the trash can in the dumpster. She bent over towards the man and looked at him.

"Do you like what you see, or what?" Nicole asked the man.

The man just smiled and opened the door to his car and walked up to Nicole.

"You have an attitude for a maid." The man told Nicole. "Allow me to get to the point." He started to say before Nicole cut him off.

"You are right." Nicole said. "Let's get to the point. I need your car, your phone, and a smoke if you have one."

The man broke out in laughter. "I don't think so." He lifted the corner of his coat and revealed a gun tucked away.

"I'll take your gun too." Nicole said as she tossed away the lid to the trash can and started to get Cameron out.

"What the hell?" the man said pulling out his gun pointing at Cameron and Nicole. "I am calling the police." He said pulling out his phone.

Nicole let Cameron down on the street. She glanced at the man who was distracted by how mangled Cameron looked and grabbed him by the arm. Swiftly and not wasting any time, she wrenched his shoulder and delivered a high kick to the face. Dazed the man staggered a bit before Nicole kicked him again in the head and out like a candle he dropped to the ground. She took his gun and tucked it away in her boot. She took the phone and put it in her pocket. She went to Cameron and dragged her by the shoulders to the car and put her in the passenger's seat. Nicole went over to the driver's seat and drove away before the man regained consciousness. She took the phone and dialed the number Cameron gave her.

"Cameron." Sarah said frantically on the phone. "Where are you? John and Mark are badly hurt. I need your help."

Nicole saw Cameron's faint red eye glow a little brighter.

"This is Nicole; Cameron is too damaged to reply. I am talking on her behalf. Where are you and I will meet up with you and help John.

"What in hell would make me trust you?" Sarah quizzed her.

"We don't have a lot of time. I will meet with you, if something is wrong, then you can shoot me on site." Nicole said.

Cameron struggled but was able to overhear Sarah giving Nicole the address where they were going to be waiting at and pushed the address into the car's GPS system.

Nicole sped away to the direction the GPS told her.

Sarah was watching over her son as Ellison was waiting behind the wheel impatiently.

"I don't like this. We should get out of here." Ellison said.

"Just give them one more minute." Sarah said wiping the trickle of blood off her son's cheek.

A car then came racing down the road into the parking lot. Ellison and Sarah both grabbed their guns and pointed it at the car.

The car came to a halt as the rubber from the tires gripped the road. Nicole flung open the door with her hands up. She pulled down her sleeve showing her brand from the Skynet camp.

Sarah lowered her gun. "Are you Nicole?" She asked.

"Yes." She saw two young men lying motionless in the van behind Sarah.

She walked over to the van and started looking at John and Mark. She grabbed a flashlight and forced open Mark's eyes and flashed the light across them. She repeated the same thing for John. Sarah stood and watched Nicole examine the boys.

"Where is Cameron?" Ellison asked

"Passenger seat." Nicole said quickly as she was examining John ripping apart his shirt.

Ellison went to see Cameron and was stunned at what he saw. "Sarah, I need help."

Ellison grabbed one arm and Sarah grabbed the other and pulled Cameron from the car.

"Cameron, how bad is it?" Sarah asked her and got no response.

"Put her in the back with John and Mark." Ellison said.

Sarah and Ellison put Cameron sitting up next to John with her back resting against the inside of the van.

"Mark has extensive head trauma. John is critical, but I stabilized him for the time being." Nicole said. "We need to get somewhere safe. I will have to operate on them both." She continued.

"You expect me to put my son's life in your hands?" Sarah said. "Who are you to make that decision?"

"I was John's field medic for four years. He has had some rough days in the future, this looks like one of those shitty days." Nicole explained.

"How bad?" Sarah asked wiping the tears from her eyes. .

"John has broken ribs which I hope didn't puncture his lungs, a broken wrist, and a fractured cheek bone. Mark has a severe concussion, which is my main concern on him and various minor injuries.

Ellison got in the driver's seat and started the engine. Sarah got in the back to help Nicole in any way that she could and shut the back doors.

Sarah finally gazed at Cameron and saw how badly she was damaged. She saw her eye weakly flicker as she was trying to move her hand.

"She doesn't have long. Her power is bleeding out. I couldn't leave her for the authorities to find." Nicole said wrapping some of John's shirt around his wounds to stop the bleeding.

"You mean her power supply is damaged?" Sarah said getting upset. "She could be leaking radiation on my son, on all of us!" She looked at Cameron once more and saw her move.

"She isn't leaking any radiation." Nicole said working on Mark.

"But her power cell is ruptured." Sarah snapped at her.

"Trust me." Nicole calmly answered.

Cameron weakly put her damaged fingers on John's bruised arm. "I'm sorry John." She faintly spoke. "I failed you." She said as her flickering eye went to pitch black nothingness as a few tears trailed down her metal cheek and skin. Her hand fell off John's arm and her head bowed down.

"Cameron!" Sarah said as she shook her in a failed attempt to revive her. She looked at Nicole looking for an answer.

"She'll be back." Nicole said with a coy smile. "I've seen worse in my time, but first we need to tend to your son."


	59. The Dark Road to Recovery

**Chapter 59: The Dark Road to Recovery**

John laying on his back, weakly opened one eye and examined his surroundings. From the looks of it, he was in an older house in a bedroom. The blinds were open allowing sunlight to beam on his face, which he assumed was the reason of why he was awake. Where was he and what happened to the others were questions entering his mind. He started to sit up when he felt pain across his body followed by a warm hand on his bare chest stopping him.

"Don't even think about getting up, sir." Nicole told John. "You could rip out your stitches and you may not have enough blood left in your veins to be patched up again."

"Who are?" John asked, not bothering to finish his question, trying to figure out who she was.

Nicole stared at him for a bit and gave him his answer. "My name is Nicole; I am, well, was one of your top medics in the future, sir."

"Stop saying Sir. It's annoying. I have done nothing to deserve this title, or even want it." John mumbled out.

"As you wish, John. However it will take me some time to get use to dropping the sir after all these years." Nicole said.

"What happened?" John asked moving his head to the side to get a view of a large bowl of red colored water with blood stained clothes and rags in it.

"Bluntly speaking, your body went through hell." Nicole said.

"I remember. I remember fighting against the machine and failed. I don't remember anything after that. Cameron must have saved me again." John said. "Where is she?"

Nicole looked down at the floor and wasn't ready to give him the news. She looked at him. "She was in the basement the last time I saw her."

"I want to see her." John told Nicole.

"I can't let you do that just yet, John. You shouldn't move for a while, at least not until those stitches take hold a little better. If you even think about moving, I will put you under for a week. Am I clear?" Nicole informed John.

"Crystal clear." John replied. "So tell me what happened."

"I don't know everything. In fact, I have only been in your time for about two days now." Nicole started her story.

"Tell me what you do know." John urged her.

Nicole looked at the floor again for a little while before starting to speak. "It's intriguing really. We finally captured some of Skynet's time displacement equipment. Mark worked on it for months, and he claimed he finally got it working. Future John looked at me and said he wanted to test it out. The number of volunteers for this were outstanding. One night Cameron and you approached me saying you had a mission for me. You told me that you had two favors to ask of me before I went. At the time, I really didn't understand one of them."

"What did I tell you?" John interrupted her.

"You told me right before I jumped through time. Quit smoking. That shit could kill you." Nicole told John and smiled. "Ironic that millions of machines wanted to kill us yet he wanted me to stop smoking."

"I arrived in this time only a few days ago. After I stole a pair of clothes and a pack of smokes, I began trying to track you down. It was by pure luck that I happened to spot Cameron. She helped lead me to your location where you and Mark were already badly injured waiting in a van. Ellison drove for many hours while your mother and I helped stabilize you." Nicole explained.

"After working on yours and Mark's body injuries all night, I finally felt optimistic about both of your conditions." She continued.

"Mark is under for the time being. He has a bad concussion and I had to drill a hole in his skull to alleviate pressure from the fluid buildup on his brain. He also has a broken arm. I was able to set it cleanly, so now time will have to run its course. As for you, you were a pain in the ass. You have a fractured cheek bone, four broken ribs, and a few gashes here and there. Most importantly is the giant gash on your side." Nicole said wiping her hands off on a fresh towel. "The good news is that you haven't spit up any more blood lately, so I think we can rule out a punctured lung."

John moved his hand over his side of his stomach and felt stitches, then his chest. "How do you know they are broken?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say I had help and borrowed a few pieces of machinery." Nicole told John pointing at some hospital equipment in the corner of the room.

Loud footprints were headed towards John's room.

"Cameron?" John asked.

"Hello John Connor. I hope you are feeling better. My scans show that your vitals are much improved from the other night." John Henry said.

"Nicole, I have left the supplies you requested in the kitchen. If you have any other requests, please let me know before morning." John Henry continued.

"Why the morning?" John asked.

"Ms. Weaver and I need to leave to avoid future conflicts John. I am afraid that after what happened with Cameron, your mother and Ms. Weaver are differing on what the next course of action should be, and it has been mutually decided that for now, we will go separate ways." John Henry explained.

"What do you mean, what happened with Cameron." John asked sharply. "Cameron." John shouted.

"You didn't tell him?" John Henry asked looking at Nicole.

"He wasn't in the condition to deal with that right now John Henry." Nicole answered.

"What are you not telling me?" John demanded.

John Henry looked at John for a while and spoke. "Cameron has been terminated."

"What, I don't believe it" John said ignoring warnings from Nicole about his stitches and sat up. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and the side of his body.

As John ripped out the IV that was in his arm he stood on his own two feet for the first time in a while and felt very light headed.

"John, you have to lay back down. " Nicole yelled at him.

"Take me to her, and then I will do as you ask. Until then I will not listen to you." John said looking at Nicole. "So either you do what the hell I ask and take me to Cameron or I bleed out wandering around until I find her myself."

John Henry nodded his head at John and beckoned him to follow. As John walked out of his room, he passed another room and saw Mark lying on a bed hooked up to an IV and heart rate monitor. He felt quesy as he saw a small plastic tube attached to the side of his skull. From what it looked like at first glance was the best and only way to drain fluid off of Mark's brain. In a garbage can were many blooded towels and clothes. One last thing caught John's eye about Mark.

"Why the hell is he wearing a pink cast on his arm?" John asked Nicole.

"What is wrong with pink?" John Henry asked. "It seemed to be the most popular color at the hospital so I commandeered that color."

John just looked and shook his head. "Poor guy gets the hell beat out of him and the first thing he will see when he wakes up is a pink cast." John whispered to himself.

John took baby steps following John Henry until he got to the stairs. Every step John took down the stairs felt like a thousand needles in his side. As he made it to the basement, he saw a body lying down on the floor with an extra large comforter covering it up. John grabbed the comforter from the top and dragged it down revealing Cameron's motionless face and chest in plain view. He took his hand and brushed away her hair in front of her face and touched her exposed metal cheek. It felt so cold to his fingertips. He noticed her destroyed shoulder and badly damaged arm. A tear formed in his eyes and he picked up her right hand and held her two metal and two flesh covered fingers in his own blooded hand.

"What happened?" John asked out loud wanting a response.

"John, you should be laying down." His mother said . "You just ripped out a few stitches and you are bleeding again."

John looked briefly at his mother whose eyes started to fill with tears as she was coming to his aide.

"Her power module is broken. She is not repairable with today's modern technology. Even with a new power module, the damage she took is too severe to be repaired to be an effective guardian for you." "I am sorry John, but the best and safest measure would be to apply thermite to her to keep the technology from Skynet's database." John Henry instructed.

"Burn her?" John mumbled.

"Yes." John Henry emotionlessly replied.

"Never." John spoke harshly to John Henry.

"Your mother said the same response. This is why Ms. Weaver and I must leave. If we linger around too long, Skynet will become too powerful and win. We must cut our losses and prepare ourselves for the future. " John Henry explained. "We must look towards the future and not the past."

"We are human, John Henry. We humans do not see everything as 1s and 0s like you do. You asked Nicole if she needed anything before you took off in the morning. Will you grant me one last request as well before you leave and our paths become separate?" John asked him as his mother helped him to stand up and away from Cameron.

"Yes." John Henry simply replied.

John walked over to him slowly, feeling the blood trickle down his side. "You still have Cameron's detailed files from when you had Skynet reconstruct her in the future?" he asked.

"Yes, I still have all of her detailed structural files in case of needed field repairs. I don't see how that will be of any use to you."

"All I ask is that you acquire me a heavy graphic capable laptop and a hard drive cluster big enough to copy every detail of Cameron's model structure. Measurements, weight, power requirements, everything you have about her model and the triple eight's module series." John told him looking at him directly in the face.

"I don't see how that will be of any use to you, John." John Henry replied. "The triple eight uses a different power module than what Cameron's model uses. Her damage is too great. She is terminated."

"Just do it John Henry, it is my last request for you." John barked at John Henry and suddenly grabbed for his chest.

"John what is wrong?" Nicole asked him.

"My chest, it's killing me." John said before he kneeled over and vomited blood on his feet.

"Nicole, do something", shouted Sarah.

"John Henry, help me get him back upstairs as soon as possible. With this amount of blood, he has internal bleeding." Nicole screamed at him.

John Henry took John back to his room while Nicole made Sarah watch from the sidelines as she prepped John for surgery with John Henry at her side.


	60. The Waiting Game

**Chapter 60 – The Waiting Game**

"Is this really necessary?" John asked as Nicole flashed her light across John's eyes.

"Are you a doctor?" Nicole asked. "I don't think so, so therefore shut up and be a good little resistance fighter and sit still." She said answering her own question.

John showed impatience as he held his right arm around his chest that was extremely tender and sore.

"You are getting better, but you still need to take it easy and let your body heal." Nicole said putting down the light and walked away.

John slowly and painfully stood up and put on a button up shirt and walked across the room.

"It's too quiet in here. It's annoying." John muttered to his mother who was frying eggs and bacon for breakfast.

"I sort of like it." Sarah said. "It's refreshing not hearing bullets whiz by our heads."

"I suppose." John said. "Where did John Henry leave all the computer equipment? I don't think I can do much of anything physical for a while or Nurse Nicole will get all cranky."

"Have you seen yourself in the mirror John? You look like shit." Sarah told her son. "Besides, I am growing fonder of her by the day. She doesn't question my thoughts, she shows me respect, and I like her work ethic."

"Whatever." John mumbled again. He heard Nicole coming into the room.

"Well John, you can do whatever you want. You are a grown man. But if you rip out any stitches or even get a paper cut you would be prone to infection." Nicole said. "Sarah, did you know the best way to check for infection is taking one's temperature. Also, according to this latest magazine I picked up, it says the most accurate scans for temperature is rectally." Nicole said emphasizing the last word as she grabbed a bottle of water and continued on her way.

Sarah smiled and tried to hide her small chuckle. "See John, I like her humor too."

John ate his breakfast slowly as he honestly didn't know what he should do next. His mother and him made small talk until Nicole came back fifteen minutes later.

"Mark is awake." She said going towards the sink and rinsing off what appeared to be a little bit of blood.

John and Sarah both rushed over to Mark's room to see him lying still on his bed.

"Hey man, how are you feeling?" John asked feeling grateful that Mark was still alive.

"Just peachy, John. I think I have all four limbs. Let me check. Yep, that's a start." Mark said.

"You are looking better." Sarah said encouragingly.

Mark lifted his hand up to his head and felt around wanting to know what injuries he has.

"Don't you dare touch the side of your head." Nicole shouted in the room.

Mark put his hands down and looked at John. "Is it me, or is that new girl a little uptight and bitchy?" he asked.

John smirked.

"I heard that!" Nicole rambled at Mark coming into the room.

"My head feels like it is going to explode. Do you have some Advil or something?" Mark asked.

"Well, your head hurts because you had too much intracranial pressure. The pain is probably a mix of that and the hole I had to drill into your skull to relieve the pressure. There used to be a tube to drain the fluid out as well, but I just removed it since the pressure seems to have stabilized." Nicole explained to him.

"So now I just have a hole in my head." Mark said looking at Nicole. "Let's hope none of my massively super human brain falls out." Mark said with a weak chuckle.

"What brain?" Nicole asked with a grin. "Oh relax would ya?" she said noticing Mark looked a little scared. "The hole will seal itself over time. You have special bandages over it to accelerate the healing process. Just don't touch it."

Sarah started to laugh a little from Nicole's response.

Nicole looked at Mark and injected him with a needle.

"Oww!" Mark replied.

"I don't remember you being this much of a baby in the future." Nicole told Mark.

"Did I have a giant hole in the side of my skull in the future?" Mark asked.

"No." Nicole answered him studying his facial expressions.

"Then there you go." Mark said. "You know, I always dreamed waking up with a Nurse. Funny, this is not how my dreams have pictured it."

"Pervert!" Nicole told him.

"I'm sorry; it must be the massive headache and the hole in the side of my skull. It's like it just slipped out." Mark said laughing at his own joke. "Get it, slipped out of my head, hole in the skull," he continued. The remaining three just sort of stared at Mark.

"Right, no one really caught that one, did ya?" Mark commented.

John made his way to the basement where John Henry left him all the computer supplies he requested. As he was looking at some of the data, he was becoming more depressed for it all looked Greek to him.

Hours passed and John, realizing he fell asleep, looked up from his laptop work and saw Mark coming down the stairs with his head wrapped in white bandages. Mark saw him stare.

"Well the good thing about this is; I don't need a hair cut for a least a few months." Mark said.

"You know, for being almost dead, you sure did get your humor back pretty fast." John said a little grouchy at Mark.

"Well John, to be honest I am scared shitless. I had a hole drilled in my skull. I almost died. Even though I should be lying down and resting, if I do, I keep thinking about how I could be dead. So I push myself to get up and keep going. Grant every step I take and when I stand up I can feel my pulse beating in my head." Mark explained to him. "As for my humor, I figured you Connor's have the over serious factor covered so I'll stick with my jokes. Besides, in all the good movies I have seen in my life, the funny guy always lives at the end of day." He continued letting out a small grin to himself.

He walked over to Cameron's body that was covered up. He moved the blanket off her and examined her.

"Damn." Mark said to himself.

"Her power supply is destroyed." John told Mark.

"I asked John Henry to give me all the details of her model number and a common triple eight and I don't understand it. I was hoping John Henry was wrong that these two models of terminators had different types of power modules. After staring at this crap for hours, I am convinced he was right. They have completely different power modules." John said frustrated.

Mark walked up to the laptop and verified John's ideas. "The sizes and power output is completely different. Looks like you are right." Mark told him.

"Maybe we could figure out a way to modify the output of power and somehow make room in her chest for a triple eight power supply." Mark said grasping at straws to encourage John.

"Doubtful, you really think I can just remove support rods and various pieces of metal in her chest? She wasn't made for combat to begin with." John said. "The last thing I remember from Cameron is walking in the room to see Sonya motionless in the corner, and then a soft yet choking grip coming from Cameron's arm to my neck. She made me black out, and then expected me to just flee with you after I regained consciousness. Then she ran off and got destroyed. She should have asked for our help."

"I am sure she had good reasons, John." Mark told him.

"So now it's back to square one; my mother and I on the run, a destroyed terminator guardian, and you. If Cameron was right, judgment day is only a few years away. We are screwed." John said.

"Look Connor, first thing is first. It's dinner time and I'm freaking hungry. We have time, John. We can get back to full health, and then figure out how to bring your machine lover back online to protect you from the daunting single life." Mark laughed. "Come on, give it a rest for the night."

Mark sat down on the sofa upstairs and turned on the television and flipped through the channels.

"Dinner is ready, come and get it." Nicole said.

"What's for dinner?" Mark said.

"Vegetables, fruit, and ham mixed with vitamins." Nicole replied.

John grabbed his dish from the kitchen and sat next to Mark and took the remote away from him.

"Watch this." Mark said hitting John on the leg.

Mark started to get up and sat back down quickly.

"Oh owww!" Mark whimpered out loud.

"What's wrong?" Nicole asked a little nervously.

"My head got dizzy as I got up. Oh the pain!" Mark replied trying to keep a straight face.

Nicole grabbed his plate and walked over to Mark. She sat the plate down on his lap and stared into his eyes.

Mark attempted to keep a straight face and failed.

"Asshole." Nicole said slapping him on the arm knowing it was all a scam to get her to deliver his food so he didn't have to get up. "You know you were much more charming in the future."

"You should have seen half the stuff he got Sonya to do for him." Sarah blurted out.

The room fell dead quiet as Sarah hated that she bought up such a painful memory so soon.

Mark lost the smile on his face and stared at his food pushing it aside.

"I think I am going to go downstairs and look at some robot stuff." Mark replied and took off down the stairs.

After he left Nicole looked at Sarah. "So what was that all about?"

"Sonya was Mark's girlfriend for a while until she had her CPU ripped out by some other machine. I guess Cameron's last act was to get it back along with my kidnapped mother." John explained. "I think I am done eating too. I will be in the basement."

Nicole picked up the barely touched food and put it on the counter. "Damn, I wish I knew."

"It's only been a few days ago. It's been very hard on them, but both of their guardians, are scrap metal now." Sarah explained.

"I saw Cameron down there, but where is Sonya's body?" Nicole asked.

"I really don't know." Sarah answered her.

"I am going to make sure the guys are okay." Nicole said. "I almost feel bad." She continued.

Nicole walked down to the basement and saw Mark and John staring at detail scans that John Henry left them. "I'm sorry about before. I had no idea Sonya jumped back to this time along with Cameron." Nicole said.

"It's not your fault." Mark said. "It's just, I don't know. Weird. I heard her die and did nothing. But I know if I would have tried I would have been killed, because I can't beat a triple eight."

"I know this isn't the right time to ask, but where is she?" Nicole asked.

"I picked up her body after she lost the fight and her CPU chip was ripped out. I laid her in the trunk of the car then we proceeded to go after Cameron. The next thing I know some huge machine kicked John's and my ass. She was in the flipped over car from the fight." Mark said. "Who knows where she is now."

"Sorry to hear that." Nicole said mentally making a note of her missing body. The last thing she wanted is a terminator body that can advance the timeline of Skynet. However she was a little relived knowing that she wasn't a combat chassis. "You know the schematic you are looking at makes me laugh a little bit." She continued to say to blow off the worry.

"Why's that?" Mark asked.

"I remember when the resistance first captured her. You were still sort of new to the tech job, so you claimed that you wanted to pull the power module first so you didn't risk damaging the CPU with a power surge." Nicole said. "You asked Cameron a hundred times to tell you what to do. In fact, it was the only time I saw her completely annoyed with you." Nicole continued.

"What exactly was she annoyed with me about?" Mark asked.

"Because you doubted her," Nicole said.

John looked at Nicole. "I don't understand." He said.

"Cameron told Mark how to properly remove the power module and Mark argued with her that he didn't need to remove all the shielding around it first since he had a clear view of it. Cameron said it was to reduce risk of damage and so forth. Mark then asked her how she knew about Sonya's model and all the details of her power module or if it was just a terminator thing with the whole 'detailed files' line that he was used to hearing." Nicole explained.

"So did I finally believe her?" Mark asked almost feeling guilty for being stubborn in the future.

"Yeah, you did." Nicole said.

Cameron was going away to help John with something and you blurted out to her 'Are you really sure?" She replied back "Yes." She turned around and looked you right in the eyes. "I have the same damn module." Then she walked away.


	61. Just A Little Secret

**Chapter 61 – Just A Little Secret**

"No. Neither one of you are going to drive over twenty hours to go look for a car that's long gone." John's mother condemned the idea as it was being plotted. "You both must be out of your damn minds to think I would go along with that idea."

"We have to find the car; we have to get Sonya's body." John argued with his mother.

"No, John. You are in no condition to drive, let alone if you run into trouble." Sarah told him. "I can't beat the machines, you and Mark both are beat to shit, and I highly doubt Nicole would side with you."

"We can't let Skynet get her body and you have to understand, she is Cameron's only shot of a resurrection." John explained to her.

"Your mother is correct; you still need at least four to six weeks for recovery. You might feel fine right now, but that's because you're drugged out of your mind on pain killers. John, you have a hole in your lung, and Mark has a hole in his head." Nicole stated agreeing with Sarah.

"Hey I am good with the idea of sitting on my butt and recovering. However we are almost out of sodas. I would go, but hate to risk myself too much right now." Mark said stretched out on the sofa.

"Shut up Mark." Nicole sarcastically told him.

"So we do nothing?" John said quite annoyed. "If a machine finds us, we have no chance. We need Cameron, and we need her back now."

"I will see what contacts I have left in the area, maybe I can find the car for you." Ellison said coming out of one of the bedrooms. "I won't be able to look for long. Weaver and John Henry are expecting me back to train John Henry at the first of the month.

"Thank you." John proclaimed.

John was finished with the conversation and headed back downstairs to attend to his fallen guardian.

As Ellison stepped out the door, Sarah started to make dinner for the household.

"Hey Nicole, can I ask a favor of you?" Mark said sitting up on the sofa.

"Now what?" Nicole asked.

"So as fabulous as eating is and watching television all day, I think I will be getting bored of it soon enough. I was hoping you could buy me some equipment to somewhat repair Cameron the best I can." Mark explained to her.

"I can't do it today, but yeah. I could manage that." Nicole answered him.

"I won't be able to do much, but I am thinking, anything at this point is better than nothing." Mark said. "On a side note, have you or future me ever powered Cameron's chip to a laptop before?"

"Yeah a couple of times you did in the future. Every time though Connor watched you like a hawk and was bitchy about it." Nicole said.

"You remember the power specs?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, its low power since its her only chip. Just don't let Connor catch you. He would probably pop his other lung." Nicole said with a smile.

"What is taking Ellison so long?" John said pacing up and down the living room.

"Good morning to you too son." Sarah yawned rubbing her eyes at John. She noted the seriousness of his face and let out a sigh. "It has only been two days. He probably stopped overnight and is checking it out."

Hours passed and the phone finally rang. John scrambled to the phone and picked it up but did not say a word.

"This is Ellison. The car was taken for processing for the hit and run evidence. I talked to one of the guys I had connections with and he said they found some messed up shit in the car and reported it. If I am correct, the standard protocol is to inform the Department of Defense." Ellison explained to the person on the phone.

"Where would the Department of Defense take her?" John asked on the phone.

"My guess would be Virginia. That is all I know and John, good luck." Ellison said on the phone and ended the call.

John looked around the room. "We are screwed." "I am going to get some fresh air." he said opening the door and leaving.

Mark went downstairs and looked for a cutting knife. He found what he wanted and stopped in his tracks.

"Need help?" Nicole said.

"Sure." Mark replied

He walked over to Cameron and slowly sliced open and pulled away the flesh and hair covering her CPU port. Nicole picked up a tool and started to unscrew the port cover. Within a matter of minutes, Mark peered inside and saw Cameron's CPU.

"Here," Nicole said handing Mark a pair of pliers. "Make sure you pull it out by the base tap." She continued.

Mark slowly pulled Cameron's CPU out of her socket and stared at its complexity. He laid it down next to his laptop and put the port cover back on and folded the hair and flesh back over the fresh cut trying to hide it the best he could.

"Decided to hide this idea from John?" Nicole glared at him.

"He has enough on his mind, besides, she doesn't have power so it's not like she needs the CPU in her combat chassis." Mark told Nicole. "If John gets any words or thoughts from Cameron, he would set off blazing to find that power module. Punctured lung or not, he would act on emotion." He continued.

"Damn." Nicole said. "No trust in Connor." She looked at Mark trying to get a response.

"No, he knows his stuff, he's a smart guy, but one time Cameron told me that his emotions would kill him." Mark said looking at her CPU.

"Besides, if the Department of Defense really has Sonya's body, then that will at least slow down Skynet from finding her. Well, that's my hope at least. But, if I can get Cameron to hack into the Department of Defense, well then that would be most useful to all of us to find her replacement heart, so to speak." Mark explained to Nicole as he was wiring her CPU to his personal laptop.

"Cleaver. And here I thought you were just the comedian." Nicole smiled at Mark.

Mark looked at Nicole, "Humor is my ally, you have medicine, John has terminator guardians and war tactics, and well I had to have something to fit in."

Mark continued to connect different wires to his laptop from Cameron's CPU. "Okay, let's see if this works." He connected the power lead to the chip and watched his laptop flicker a little bit.

Minutes later nothing happened with his laptop. He opened a blank word document and started to type some sentences.

"Cameron, are you there? Can you read this?"

Another minute later, nothing was happening.

"Maybe you didn't wire it up right?" Nicole said.

"Aren't you the one that told me the power requirements?" he said looking at Nicole with a grin.

"Maybe if you," Nicole said. "Wait, look!" she said pointing at the screen.

Mark's laptop changed from word document to a program to open his webcam built in on the laptop. The word document was now to the right of the webcam viewer.

"Hello Mark." The computer typed underneath Mark's line of text for Cameron.

"Are you able to take full command of my laptop?" Mark typed.

"Yes, but I will need three and a half minutes for total access. " Cameron wrote on the screen.

"Great, I am going to go ahead and talk normal, but I want you to just type your response. John doesn't know you are online by the way." Mark said outloud.

"I understand." Cameron wrote out.

"So the situation is this. We are in Canada now hiding you. Your chassis is just behind me but your power module is not repairable. John has a punctured lung, and I have a hole in my head, so we are nowhere near combat ready."

"All we know right now is that Sonya might have a perfect replacement module that could power you, but we don't know how to find where the Department of Defense is storing her." Nicole chimed in.

"I understand. It will take me days, if not weeks to fully hack their systems without being caught from this laptop." Cameron wrote out.

"We have nothing but time right now." Nicole stated.

Mark heard some footsteps coming down the stairs. "Is that you John?" he asked.

"Yeah, what are you two doing down here?"

"Secretly making out, but you messed that up." Mark said right before he felt his shoulder get slapped by Nicole.

"Dream on." Nicole said walking away and going up the stairs.

John looked at Mark's computer and saw he was looking at a webpage with a tv guide and some workout routines.

"Wow, really?" John asked. "Workout routines?"

Mark tried to think up of something quickly. "Well, until we figure out the next move, perhaps we need to start training for the future.

"Yeah," John said. "Perhaps we do need to get ourselves ready."


	62. On The Job

**Chapter 62: On the Job**

Two long weeks have past; Mark began to type on his personal laptop. I type this only to keep my thoughts and records straight for all that I have done so far. Cameron has been working away with no success into hacking the Department of Defense trying to figure out the location of Sonya's body. Even though I trust her, I decided to use my own laptop that is not in any way connected to the outside world. I tell Cameron a lot, but she doesn't need to know my every thought.

About a week ago John started to get creative with the outside landscape. He used a ton of rope to create some kind of workout course. He attempted to get me to work out with him, but so far I have resisted to most of his routines. However, for my own sake, I was proud that I made it about 3 feet in the air climbing the rope before I decided that I hate heights. John also started a part time job about a week ago at a steel mill despite his mother's threats and against her will. Sarah was more understanding after she was put in the loop that Cameron is somewhat online and completely monitoring the steel mills security cameras. Cameron detected no threats and deemed it to be safe. He works the night shift, comes home and sleeps most of the day. In the afternoon he goes and works out.

Nicole has been busy making sure we don't hurt each other and making sure we are healing properly. I attempted to get her to go jogging with me in the morning, but I don't think she is a morning person. She is starting to grow on me a little bit. I found out small ways to push her buttons and I can't help but annoy her from time to time.

Sarah has been frustrated with her son and his impatience. Just to get out of the house and not worry about John, she picked up a waitressing job down the road to help pay for the bills and all the items we have been purchasing lately.

I have been mostly bored the first week, but John finally gave me the okay to tinker around with Cameron's combat chassis. I told him it would be best that I started the easier electrical repairs now, so when we get a new power module, she would be more quickly repaired. I must admit, the strategy and protective shielding is amazing. I took about a day removing her breastplate and there were really no unprotected wiring. Everything is run in coltan tubing. In my opinion, that is protective shielding at its best. A few days later, I worked on removing Cameron's shoulder plate and started working on all the damaged wiring in there. Of course, it was a hell of a lot easier and faster when I had Cameron giving me step by step instructions. Well, it is time for me to go to bed, I am tired and it is about one in the morning. Tomorrow will be another day.

"Wake up Mark," Nicole said throwing a pillow at Mark's face. "Get your ass out of bed and let's get this over with."

"What time is it?" Mark asked shielding the light from his eyes.

"It is five past nine. You said at nine o clock we go running." Nicole stated.

"Always so punctual, "Mark said rolling out of bed. "Give me ten minutes and I will be ready to go. I will meet you downstairs. "

Ten minutes later Mark met downstairs with Nicole and they started off to head outside. They saw John coming back from his night job.

"Morning John, work suck again?" Mark asked.

"You know it." John said sounding pretty tired. "My mother around?"

"No she left around seven this morning for work." Nicole answered.

"Good." John muttered. "I might be going back to work soon to pick up someone's shift until they hire someone else." It's only four hours a day, so it isn't that big of a deal."

"Don't you think twelve hour days are a bit much?" Nicole sparred at John.

"I thought in the future our work days are a lot longer." John blasted Nicole back.

Nicole gave up the agreement and started off on the run with Mark.

After the run, Mark came downstairs to work on Cameron's wiring. He saw John looking over her endoskeleton holding her shoulder plate.

"This waiting is killing me. Skynet is out there, and we are idle and defenseless while they are getting more powerful." John said putting down the shoulder plate.

"It has only been two weeks. Nothing is going to happen overnight." Mark saw his comments didn't really win the crowd so he attempted to turn the tide on John. "So say she was at 100% walking around, what would we do? Hunt Skynet?

"Exactly, she would know what to do, where to go to stop them." John said.

"I find it interesting that you depend on Cameron for everything. Don't get me wrong, she is a hell of a girl, a protector, and a heck of a fighter, but you, being the great John Connor, I can't say I am impressed." Nicole said coming down the stairs. "The Connor I knew was the one in charge. He was one that led by example, showing honor, and a trustworthy cause. In the future, men would gladly die for you, you came up with plans, taught your men the machine's weaknesses, you showed them that you don't need the machines to live, let alone to fight. Now look at you, without your machine, you are lost."

"Whatever" John sputtered out and walked by Nicole up the stairs.

"You probably pissed him off." Mark bluntly said to Nicole.

"He needs to shape up and fast." Nicole said to John.

Mark started to open up the laptop and see if Cameron has any success.

"Sorry Mark, there is nothing new to report. I was starting to be traced, so I had to figure out a new way to hack the site. It is taking a lot longer than what it should be. I have underestimated them." Cameron typed away on the word processor.

"No worries Cam, I know you are doing your best. I do have an idea though. Can you find out where the nearest office branch of the Department of Defense is located to us?" Mark asked Cameron

"Yes, I can do that." Cameron typed out.

"Why do you want to know that?" Nicole asked

"I am getting bored and I need a job. I figured the best way to steal something from the DoD is having someone from the inside pulling the job. Perhaps I could hack them from the inside and figure out what else they know about the terminator kind. With, Cameron I am only imagine she can make the resume that they couldn't help but at least want to interview me." Mark explained to Nicole.

"Not a horrible idea." Nicole told Mark giving him a pat on the back.

"Thanks dear." Mark said laughing and headed up the stairs.

"Shut up Mark." Then Nicole stared at the laptop some before she spoke. "Do you think I was too hard on John?"

"No." Cameron simply replied back.

"Good." Nicole replied. "I don't know really what to say, so I suppose I should leave you be so you can do your thing."

"Have a good rest of the day." Cameron typed on the monitor.

A couple days later Nicole walked out in the kitchen to see Mark eating scrambled eggs and had a bag of M&Ms on the table. As he was eating the eggs, he was pressing together two of the candies, until one of the splintered or crumbled apart. He ate broken M&M and placed the so called winner off to the side.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Nicole said. "You shouldn't play with your food.

"Did you know the M&MS with the green shell seem to be manufactured superior to all the other colors in the bag?" Mark said between chewing his food.

"What are you babbling about?" Nicole asked.

"Well, so far on the table you can see that in the M&M gladiator winner's circle most of the candies are green coated ones." Mark chuckled as he was eating.

Nicole walked by the table and scooped up most of the M&Ms off the table and put them in her mouth. "Looks like they just lost." She mumbled out with a full mouth.

"You two are such kids." Sarah said walking back into kitchen from the supply closet with a trash bag. "Have you seen my son lately?"

"I think he is at work until about eight this morning, Sarah. But the last couple of days he has been rolling in about 2:30. " Nicole answered her.

"Oh okay." Sarah said. "I took the day off and was hoping to spend some time with him. He seems little unlike himself lately."

Hours past and finally around 2pm John opened the door to the house where his mother waited for him.

"Where have you been?" Sarah asked her son trying to keep cool about everything.

John looked at her for a moment, and then spoke to her. "School."

"What?" Sarah asked.

"I enrolled in a military academy about ten miles from here." John told his mother. "It runs from 8am to 2:00pm."

"Please tell me you didn't use your real name." Sarah said looking a little upset that she didn't get informed of this first.

"I'm not stupid." John said. He looked her in the eyes, "I used my new alias name. The same one I'm using for my job."

"Did you want to go grab something to eat, maybe get some fresh air?" Sarah asked him.

"Not really." John shortly answered his mother. "I just want to go to bed and pass out. I have to be at work in 9 hours." He didn't wait around much and went to his room.

Sarah looked a little hurt and tried to cover it up but failed. Mark figured it was best for him to go downstairs and see what Cameron was up to and see if she had any success.

"Hello Cameron," Mark said opening up the laptop. Anything new I should be aware of today?"

"Hello Mark," Cameron typed to him. "Nothing is new today, however my concern for John is growing deeper. Usually every time he comes home he visits me and talks to himself. I have not seen him for a couple of days. Is he okay?" Cameron asked.

"I think so," Mark said. "He is still pretty upset about you not being around and enrolled himself into a military school as of this week."

"I understand." Cameron typed. "You should be getting a call here shortly from the Department of Defense."

"How do you know that?" Mark asked out loud.

"I have successfully hacked the unrestricted files from there server." Cameron typed out. "While this is a good thing, it is also bad."

"What is the bad news?" Mark asked.

"I haven't broken the restricted files yet." Cameron replied.

Nicole came down the stairs holding a portable phone.

"Mark, the Department of Defense is on the line. They want to talk to you." She said.

"Wish me luck." Mark said out loud.

Cameron typed on the screen after he left. "I will make sure of your luck." Then the screen faded to black.


	63. Work Isn't So Bad

**Chapter 63: Work Isn't So Bad**

Mark typed out in his laptop. For the last week, I have been in training for the Department of the Defense. I swear if I didn't have energy drinks by the dozen, I would have fallen asleep. At home everything is pretty quiet and peaceful. In my opinion it is almost too peaceful, let everyone is keeping to themselves. Since I am working from eight in the morning until six at night, I don't really see John at all. I see Sarah from time to time, and usually chat with Nicole when she is in a happy mood. At night, I grab something to eat, then go down in the basement and perform some minor repairs on Cameron's wiring on her combat chassis that she explains for me on what to do. Nothing too exciting but it's better than being on the run. Oh well, tomorrow is my first day that I actually am doing work and not training.

"Mark, you are early." Some man in a suit told him referring to his job arrival time.

"Yes, sir. I prefer to be here early, rather than late." Mark said feeling almost underdressed in a nice shirt and khaki pants.

"I'm not that old Mark, call me Kevin. I am your direct supervisor." Kevin informed him. "If you have any problems or issues, you come to me first and we can work something out. I hate to do this, but I have a meeting in a couple of minutes so I will introduce you to Elizabeth. You will be shadowing her and her research for a while. I heard you are quite the computer whiz, so you should fit right in." Kevin said.

Kevin walked Mark around the office for a minute pointing out some other members of the office and some important locations. Mark then saw a very attractive red headed female sitting at her desk.

"Mark this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is Mark. He is the new guy you will be showing the ropes too. I'll see you two around noon when I am out of my morning plans." Kevin explained to Mark and Elizabeth.

"Call me Liz," she said holding her hand out waiting for Mark to shake it.

"I'm Mark. He said shaking her hand which he noticed she had soft hands, yet a firm grip.

"So you are the new guy." She said with half a grin on her face.

"Yeah." Mark replied, "So what should I be doing other than getting you coffee?" he continued throwing in his joke.

"Why would you do that?" she asked. "Anyways, for now, I will have you sit next to me and I will go over some of the computer drives you will need to know about. We have certain drives that multiple people share, and some are personal drives. After you get comfortable with procedures, I can let you try out some basic routines and such." Liz explained. "Have you filled out your clearance paperwork yet?"

"Not yet." Mark said looking a little overwhelmed.

"I would do that as soon as possible." Liz told him. "Once you got cleared you can work on some of the cool stuff like me." She continued with a smile on her face.

"What do you want me to do for the mean time?" Mark said.

"I want you to work on CPU workload. Everything we do is trying to get the most out of every CPU. I will let you run coded programs and manually program the CPU to best balance its power so all programs can work as fast as possible." Liz told him.

"Are you referring to Multiple Core and Multithreading Technology?" Mark asked.

"Exactly!" Nicole said almost cheering him on.

"I will let you set up on that terminal here while I get some of my code finished up." Liz said pointing over to Mark's new working station.

Mark booted up the computer and used his new log in name and password and watched as the computer granted him access to a few drives and started to personalize his workstation a little. About thirty minutes later, he saw Liz walk over towards his direction.

"Hey you got plans for lunch?" Liz asked Mark.

"Nope, I was thinking about grabbing a chicken sandwich and some fries and maybe do some people watching." Mark told her.

"Mind if I go with?" Liz asked.

"Yeah that would be cool with me." Mark replied back to her.

Liz was very chatty at lunch quickly trying to befriend Mark. Mark at first enjoyed the attention and the fact that she was smoking hot and what seemed to be taking an interest in him. Mark tried to get her to open up about herself a little more but she seemed more interested in what he was saying. Mark dodged questions about his past only giving out generic answers and so forth. He didn't want to lie to her, but at the same time, he figured it would be best that she doesn't know all of the truth. Mark's favorite lie was that one that he said that he wasn't expecting to get the job and hasn't looked for a place to live, so he is currently living at a hotel paid by the company until his the 45 day reimbursement policy runs out on him.

Back at the office Mark messed around with the example exercises that Liz gave him for CPU load balancing. While he would think of the proper balance, Mark was poking around on the available public drives on the computer. He ran across a couple of interesting folders about CPU performance some of them he ended up reading despite him knowing if he should have even been looking at them to begin with. Mark leaned back in his seat looking around until he found a folder names Project Cyberdyne. He looked around seeing if anyone was watching him and he double clicked the folder. A big login screen popped up asking for a level three clearance key and a pop up informing the use that the workstation does not have program rights to access it.

Mark felt an arm rest upon his shoulder and a hand laid on top of his hand on the mouse quickly moving it to exit the folder and the access to the drive.

"Careful Mark." Liz whispered in his ear. "The big shots are watching you if you start snooping around on their drives." She said pointing at one of the security cameras on the ceiling.

Mark swallowed loudly trying to think of an excuse for him snooping around.

"Don't worry about it, all of us curious rookies have done it. Even I did that same thing about three months ago." She said with a smile. "Hey got any plans tonight?" she continued.

"No I don't really." Mark answered her

"Good, come with me if you want to."

"What do you have in mind?" Mark asked.

"Trust me." Liz said.


	64. First Impressions While On A Date

**Chapter 64: First Impressions While On A Date**

"So where are we going?" Mark asked.

"You'll see." Liz answered back.

"Thanks for driving by the way. I still haven't gotten use to this town yet. Although I am sure I just lost some man law points for having you drive." Mark explained to her with a small chuckle.

"What is man law?" Liz asked looking at Mark while driving.

Mark let out a small laugh. "Well its something guys make guidelines about when they are around girls. Man law says that the guy should drive, pay for the first date, and so forth."

"Thank you for explaining." Liz said. "Does this mean you think of us getting dinner is a first date?"

"Well," Mark said to mumble. "I guess I sort of thought.." Mark tried to say.

"It's cool." Liz said, "We don't have to call it a date." She continued and looked back at the road.

"Do you happen to have a shovel in the car?" Mark asked Liz.

"No." Liz said looking at Mark strangely. "Why?"

"Well, I was hoping to dig myself out of the hole I just put myself in." Mark said laughing a little attempting to lighten the mood.

Liz pulled the car over towards a salad restaurant. She parked the car in the parking lot and they both stepped out of the car and walked towards the restaurant.

"How in the world did you park so perfectly between the lines?" Mark said. "I mean, you parked it perfect. I'm always hugging the line or parking over it. To do what you did, it takes me like four tries." He continued.

"Did you just break a man law to compliment me Mark?" Liz asked.

"Not at all." Mark said. "So why did you choose this place?"

"I love their salads here. They are the best in town." Liz explained to him.

Mark and Liz walked into the restaurant and the waiter lead them to a table.

They created some small talk between each other and the waiter served them with water and some complimentary warm bread.

Mark picked up the menu and started to look it over. His attention drew to a Caesar salad. The menu highlighted it and made a key note that it was the best salad in town. He looked it over once more and stuck with his decision.

The waiter came by once again and Liz ordered a Caesar salad along with Mark.

"So what do you like to do for fun?" Liz asked Mark.

"Well when I am out and about, I like to people watch. People are fun to study and watch." He said.

"I do that too!" Liz said excitedly. "Like that guy over there at the bar. He has been sending drinks to this one girl that is sitting at the end of the bar. So who makes the first move to sit together?"

"Well, in about three more drinks, if he doesn't make a move, she will be too drunk to be sitting!" Mark told Liz.

Mark chuckled a little bit. "How about that girl to our right? If she isn't screaming let this date end now, then I don't know what would." He continued.

"I am so glad I am not the only one who thinks humans are fascinating!" Liz told Mark.

The waiter came back to the table with two salads and the two began to eat. Mark ate like there was no tomorrow and noticed Liz was very picky what she ate. Mark noted that she only ate small pieces of lettuce and chewed her food very slowly.

"This is really good." Mark stated about his salad. "How is yours?" he asked.

"It's great!" Liz told him.

Mark stared at her and started to warm up to her. In fact he actually started to like her. She was pretty, interesting, and seemed to take an interest in him. All three were major pluses in his book.

"So what about you Liz, what do you like to do around here?" Mark asked.

"Well, just the normal girly type things. I like to hit the mall for shopping and perhaps some people watching, gardening, and sometimes cooking." Liz explained to Mark.

"So whats one thing you do that completely random that no one would guess about you?" he asked.

"Well my father was in the police department, so we went shooting a lot at the shooting range." Liz told Mark.

"Nice," Mark started to say, "did you like it? I bet I couldn't even hit the target."

"It is fun; we should try it out sometime. I could teach you." Liz seemed happy about his interest.

After eating dinner and dessert, Mark thanked the waiter and paid for the bill.

"Man he is like a machine." Mark commented. As soon as we got done eating, he was ready to hand us the check!"

"You think he is a machine?" Liz said. "Like a robot or something?"

"Well, no, I just mean he is on top of it. It is like he never misses a beat. I think he is working about ten tables." Mark tried to explain.

"I think it would be cool having robots to help us." Liz said. "Maybe then I could actually take a vacation."

Mark smiled and tried to ignore her statement. "Well I guess we should get going or the waiter is going to serve us another dinner."

"That sounds good." Liz said getting up from the chair. "I am going to use the restroom before we leave."

Mark sat at the table by himself looking around at the people. He waited for a few minutes when he saw a pretty female walk into the place. After studying her for a little bit he couldn't help but notice it looked like Nicole. Looking more closely it was her and right behind her was a tall skinny man who held up 2 fingers to the waiter, signaling a table for two.

"Well that's interesting." Mark said to himself.

"What's interesting?" Liz asked him returning from the restroom.


	65. Charged With Guilt

** Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Life has been quite busy and distracting.**

**Chapter 65: Charged With Guilt**

After Mark's date with Liz, he came back to the house. He opened up the door and all was quiet. He headed to the fridge to grab something to eat before heading to bed. As he opened the fridge door, he heard a noise coming from the basement. He walked down to the basement and noticed a light was left on. He looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Cam, you should have told me that I forgot the light." Mark said. "So you have to hear about this date I was on after work. Plus I saw Nicole out with some dude at the restaurant."

The room stayed silent.

"Alright Cam, I can do all the talking. I think she wanted me to kiss her, but I chickened out. You probably have detailed files on these things. You should really try to help me out here. Well, unless Nicole ends up being something in the future. Cause then I will never hear the end of it."

Mark walked over to the laptop and lifted the screen up and took the sheet covering off of her chip to ensure the connection was still made. Mark then started to type away on the laptop and attempted to see why Cameron was completely ignoring him.

"You are speaking to her like he is online and listening to you." A voice told him from the corner of the room.

Mark jumped out of shock and turned around to see John walking out from a dark corner of the room to standing over Cameron's endoskeleton.

"John, I thought you would be at work or something." Mark tried to hastily change the topic at hand.

"I was, but I was eager to come home and try something out. The problem is, I was just about ready to start my test, and well, her chip was missing." John told Mark.

"Yeah about that…." Mark started to say.

"So knowing you, I will take a wild guess here. How long has been hooked up to a computer? One or two weeks? I am guessing that time frame because the cuts around her endoskeleton are almost healed. " John asked.

"About a week now," Mark replied. "I made the call to do it." He said attempting to take all responsibility.

"I don't believe you." John said.

"Believe whatever you want." Mark replied. "I wanted to hook up her CPU so we could attempt to track down Sonya's body. Her power supply is a direct match to Cameron's. The best shot to hunt down this power supply was to hook up Cameron to the laptop so she could hack the Department of Defense. We wanted you out of the loop until we knew where it was because you would go guns blazing if you heard the idea."

"You don't trust my judgment?" John asked blindly.

"Perhaps, so what's your next move?" Mark asked.

"Well, behind the blanket in the back of the room, I have a custom made thermal backpack that is holding about approximately, well let's just say it's a shit ton of rechargeable battery arrays. The problem is, with all the power that she requires, this pack will only last an hour unplugged from the wall socket. So, about one hour of freedom, one hour of charging." John explained to Mark.

Mark walked over to the area John spoke about and found the backpack.

"Dude, two things." Mark started to say. "First of all, why did you tell me about this idea? I love this kind of stuff. Second of all, this thing ways like a hundred pounds." He said trying to lift it off the ground.

"I checked, rechecked, and triple checked the power requirements given to me by John Henry. Get the chip and we can try this out." John told Mark.

Mark walked over to the laptop and told Cameron that he was going to pull her chip to reinsert it back into her combat chassis. He waited for a couple of minutes and gently pulled the chip out of the laptop connection device and walked over to where John was connecting wires to contact plates where power source would be.

"Let do it." John said pointing to the chip. "It's ready to go."

Mark cut away some of the regenerating tissue over Cameron's port cover and slowly inserted the chip. He heard it click into position and looked over at John.

"It's connected." Mark said.

"Now all we have to do is wait." John said. "Rebooting should be complete in two minutes."

"So what's the plan after she is back online?" Mark asked John.

John looked over at Mark and ignored the question.

Two minutes passed and nothing happened. They waited another minute and still nothing happened.

Mark looked at John. "Did you hook it up right?"

"It should be working." John said. He looked it over and checked the wires again and found nothing out of order.

The next couple of hours they both spent looking at the battery pack and chips making sure everything was done properly. Every attempted fix they were sure to pull the chip so they wouldn't risk causing a power spike to her CPU. Nothing happened at all for the whole time they were down there.

"John it is late. I think I'm going to call it a night." Mark told John wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Yeah, I guess it is two in the morning." John answered Mark. "I got to go to work soon anyways."

John and Mark walked up the stairs and turned off the lights. The room was covered in darkness for another thirty minutes until Mark walked back down stairs again. The mystery of why it didn't work was bugging him. Mark tinkered around for another couple of minutes checking the wires and then rested on the backpack which was quite warm.

"That's weird. The only way the battery pack would be warm is if the circuit was complete and the batteries have current is going through it. That means it would be completing the charge." He said out loud. "Maybe the contacts on the chip are off."

Mark reached towards Cameron's port cover when suddenly his hand was grabbed overpoweringly and moved his hand away from her chip cover.

"Please do not pull my chip." Cameron opened up her eyes lying still on the table.

"Welcome back." Mark said.

"Your power calculations were wrong." Cameron looked at Mark.

"We followed John Henry's power requirements from your chip." Mark told Cameron

"You are correct, but I have two cores in my chip. You only powered me for one." Cameron explained to Mark.

"Damn." Mark said. "Never thought about that." He continued.

"It's fine." Cameron said. "I need some time to configure my chip to shut down all unneeded sub programs. I was only able to restore upper chassis function about a minute ago. You unplugging me again would have been just another ten minutes to boot up."

"That's cool. Do you need me to help with anything? I tried to repair all of your wiring while John worked on your chassis frame." Mark told her. "How did we do?"

"For what you have done, it is fine. However, some things are not to my specs." Cameron told him.

"I understand." Mark said. "I can leave you be."

"I don't know what to say to John." Cameron said looking at the ground.

"What do you mean?" Mark asked.

"I failed him." Cameron said. "I don't know how to fix that."

"Well, to be honest, he is distant to everyone, works a lot, and seems different, but he still puts you as his top priority. "Mark told her

Cameron nodded at Mark. "I hear thunder rolling in."

"I think it's called a storm, Cam." Mark joked with her.

"By my calculations, with my current basic functions, this pack will last about 34 minutes and 23 seconds if we lose power." Cameron told Mark.

Cameron slowly sat up on the desk using Mark's help and got to her feet. She slid the backpack on and stood up for the first time in weeks. Her limp was still there and Mark knew she was no one near back to normal.

Mark headed back up the stairs leaving Cameron to self repair. As he walked to the living room he saw a flash of lightening and saw Sarah there clutching a shotgun.

"I hate storms. " Sarah told Mark aware of his presence. "Why are you up so late?"

Mark chuckled a little. "Just complaining of my girl trouble to Cameron. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Mark." Sarah whispered to Mark looking outside.

Sarah looked out windows watching the sky light up from time to time. During one of the flashes she could have sworn she saw a car with no lights on coming down the drive way. She reached over and flipped on the outside lights to see if a car was really there. After looking for a bit, she didn't see a car and figured it was just her imagination.

Sarah continued to monitor the windows and just out of her field of vision, a car sat in the rain with its recently functioning engine turned off. The person inside the car watched Sarah stand guard at the window.

"There you are, Sarah Connor" the person said out loud in the car.


	66. Danger Lurks In the Dark

Hopefully life has returned to normal and I can start getting a chapter out every week. In the words of Arnold in terminator 2, "I need a vacation!"

**Chapter 66: Danger Lurks In the Dark**

As the thunderstorm raged on, Sarah guarded the window while the others slept. Around 4 in the morning, the power went out causing Sarah to be even more alert along with her new thermos of coffee.

Cameron witnessed the lights going out and her HUD reminding her that her battery pack only would last for roughly 32 minutes on her current power demands. She systematically started to shut down all her minor functions, but it only gained her another 3 minutes. She unplugged herself from the wall and slipped on the backpack and quietly headed up stairs. Despite working on her damaged legs, her speed up the stairs was quite slow. She opened the door silently so she would not alarm anyone. She noticed Sarah staring out the window with the shotgun and weighed her options of letting her know that she was somewhat online or if slipping past her guard was the best course of action. She made her choice.

"Sarah, is everything okay?" Cameron calmly asked her.

Sarah turned her gaze towards Cameron looking her over. "How are you functional? You were scrap the last time I saw you." Sarah roughly answered her.

"Your son and Mark created a power pack of batteries for me." Cameron replied to her. "I am extremely limited in my current state. I only have 30 minutes of power left before I shut down and all my non-vital systems are already turned off."

"Combat effectiveness?" Sarah chimed in.

"I could buy you about five seconds of time, if needed." Cameron answered her. "Other than that, I am toast."

Sarah nodded at her and looked back out the window. "Something doesn't feel right about tonight."

Cameron was about to analyze her stress patterns, but without that sub-system online she wasn't able too. "I will make a quick pass outside to ensure your safety." Cameron told her.

"Go out the back door." Sarah told her. "Wait, how can you look around, it's pouring out and you have batteries on you?"

"You son did a good job with the design of the battery pack and back pack. It is waterproof." Cameron responded to her. "Thank you for caring."

She walked towards the back door, grabbed John's raincoat, put it on, and slipped outside quietly. She reactivated her optical scanners, which in turn reduced her battery power down to twenty minutes. She studied the backyard and saw nothing to be alerting to her. She moved on to the side of the house and studied a broken down barn and headed that direction to look it over. As she approached the barn, she realized it should be condemned as it was barely standing with the thunderstorm. Walking around the barn she saw what looked to be a small out of the ordinary clearing in the woods. She carefully and quietly walked in that direction and reached for her sidearm, only to realize that she didn't equip it on her person before she unplugged herself from the basement.

Scanning around she saw two trees recently burnt. She looked at the ground and a perfectly shaped sphere filled with rain. By her estimates, the event occurred at least a couple of days ago, but it was still fresh.

She looked for footprints to judge the model number of the new terminator in their time, but the rain and winds covered any hopes of searching for answers. Her HUD reported back that she had less than fifteen minutes and she continued to the front side of the house.

As she got to the front of the house, she noticed a car that was not parked with the rest of the vehicles and there was a person sitting in the driver's seat. Cameron ducked behind the trees to study the person and vehicle.

The person in the vehicle studied the house and grabbed a pair of thermal vision goggles. Scouting the house there was only 2 heat signatures that could be found. The person picked up a phone and called someone.

"There are only two heat signatures in this house, both female." The person said on the phone.

"Abort your mission" the phone replied back to the person in the car. "We have the wrong house, if there are only two females."

The person started the car and as quiet as possible drove off away from the house.

Cameron abandoned the rest of her patrol and entered the back door of the house after knocking softly on the door so Sarah wouldn't launch buckshot in her direction.

"Sarah, we were just spied on." Cameron told her.

"Are you talking about that car that just drove away?" Sarah asked.

"Yes", Cameron said.

"Any idea what it was looking for?" Sarah asked realizing that she knew Cameron probably didn't know either.

"Whatever it was looking for, it didn't find it here. I know this doesn't sound comforting, but if that was a terminator, then systematically, it will move on, so we are safe for now." Cameron explained to Sarah.

The power restored during the conversation, and Cameron sat down next to a chair and plugged her battery pack and her into the wall to recharge.

Sarah looked at Cameron as she was charging and a look of sympathy flashed over her face. Sarah sat across from her on the sofa and created conversation with Cameron, trying to learn her restrictions and anything useful for Sarah's benefit. Afterwards they talked about the future and hashed out ideas on what would be the next move from here. As Sarah was asking a timeline for Cameron to be back or at least close to 100% another car this time with headlights came pulling into the driveway. Sarah grabbed her shotgun and hid by the door ready to surprise the driver if he came to the door.

A minute later a knock was made on the door. Cameron slowly opened the door with a pistol she took off of Sarah pointed at the person knocking.

"Mr. Ellison?" Cameron asked.

Ellison nodded at her confirming that it was him. "Good to see you are back on your feet."

"Not quite" Cameron said pointing at the cord plugged into the wall and leading to her chest.

"You told me that you weren't coming back here." Sarah told Ellison lowering her shotgun.

"I wasn't but the machines overran us." Ellison told her. "Weaver told me to flee and get to you guys with this suitcase. She said that it would explain everything." He continued handing Cameron a silver briefcase.

"What happened to John Henry and Weaver?" Sarah asked.

Ellison gave a long and quiet look at Sarah. "I pray they made it out, but there was so many of them."


	67. Upgrades

**Chapter 67 - Upgrades**

Cameron sat in a chair studying the briefcase and the contents while Ellison and Sarah sat in the kitchen discussing the events in the entirety. There was a large silver metallic tube of a fair size, and a laptop. She studied both objects and opened up the laptop and turned it on. The laptop asked for a password and Cameron tried basic passwords that she could recall Weaver using from the past. After multiple failures, the laptop locked her out and threatened to format itself if the incorrect password three more times. Cameron yelled for Ellison who was still in the kitchen chatting with Sarah. Cameron couldn't overhear what they were talking about, but when Ellison entered the room, he had tears in his eyes and seemed still shaken by the turn of events.

"Did she tell you want the password was for the laptop?" Cameron asked nicely, yet being objective.

Ellison stared at the ground and looked up to her and her power cord plugged into the wall. "She said something about your birthday before everything went to hell.

Cameron took a moment to think and entered in her creation date when she was manufactured in the factory. The laptop granted her access to the desktop. She saw only a single file on the screen and she opened it to view what it was. It was a letter written to Cameron from Weaver herself.

It read: "Cameron, if you are reading this; then there is a high possibility that I am terminated or about to be, so do not waste your resources to find me. However, turn your attention to John Henry. If anyone tries to hack him or capture him, he is programmed to literally shut down and firewall all his data on his chip, but time will defeat him. You may not believe what I have told you that my John Henry is just as important as your John Connor, but for now, just take what I say as truth. My hope is that you get this message in time if at all, because the last time I seen you, you were as good as terminated. So, seeing that you were never a true combat chassis, I left you with my final gift that I could give you. Inside the metal container is one of my remaining functioning mini processors with about a liter of my liquid metal. In the future, I have seen Skynet blueprints about using an endoskeleton with liquid metal on the outside to create shapes like I can, but I foresee weakness in their design. However, I have created a plan to fuse liquid metal with a coltan endoskeleton to increase your durability and strength by 50%. The idea alone is complicated and risky, so I will let you decide to attempt this procedure, or destroy my container. All I have discovered is that Skynet's number is growing, and you must protect your unproven John Connor. There is something or someone leading these machines, but I was not able to discover who or what was behind it.

Cameron continued to read the message and thought process behind the fusing of the two metals and saved the information to her CPU. Shortly after she stared blankly at the screen then the laptop suddenly got hot and created a loud pop. The laptop self-destructed. She tossed the laptop on the ground and stood up holding the container of liquid metal in her hands.

"What the hell was that noise?" Sarah asked.

"The laptop was meant to destruct after I read it." Cameron replied to her, standing up.

Sarah nodded at her. "What's in the container?"

"My fate." Cameron told her, unplugging herself from the wall and heading downstairs to be alone and contemplate the current events.

She made it downstairs and re-read Weavers message to her when she heard someone else come down the stairs.

"Hey Cam, whats up?" Mark said to her casually. "Feeling better?"

"I am fine." Cameron replied. "Where have you been?"

"Hot date?" Mark answered her. "Jealous much?"

Cameron studied his facial expressions. "No." she replied. She studied Mark and noticed that he had some mud on his jeans accompanied by a grass stain. She let the topic go while she continued processing information about coltan and liquid metal.

"What's with the container?" Mark said.

"Weaver and John Henry are either dead or captured. She sent me some of her liquid metal in hopes to fuse it with my endoskeleton. In short, it would create enhanced coltan." Cameron explained to him.

"That's awesome!" Mark explained. "I want to study this idea and help."

"Mark, it has a risk that it could melt my endoskeleton and terminate me." Cameron spoke softly to him.

"Then we should test it first." Mark said without a huge amount of concern.

"How can we test it? We have no spare parts here." Cameron reminded him.

"Not like we can't find a local evil Skynet terminator in the world." Mark told her. "That or I could take a piece from Sonya's endoskeleton when I retrieve her power supply."

"I like the second option better." Cameron told him. "How goes the search for her chip?"

"I should be getting the necessary clearances any day now. Also, where is your old power supply?" Mark asked.

"Why do you need it?" Cameron asked.

"If I am to steal it under lock and key, I would rather like to put something back in its place. Maybe that will buy me enough time to get out of there before they know. I don't think I can go all terminator style and just run and gun my way out." Mark smiled at Cameron.

"My power supply is broken." Cameron reminded him.

"That's why I will make it look like it is in working condition." Mark told Cameron.

"Fair enough." Cameron told him. "What is your backup plan?"

Mark looked down at the ground for a little bit, and then raised his eyes upon her.

"Trust me." Mark said giving Cameron a smile that even she grinned at.


	68. Opportunities

**Chapter 68: Opportunities**

"Get up." Cameron said kicking the bed in an attempt to wake Mark up in time so he could go to work.

"I don't want too." Mark said rolling over in his best attempt to ignore her.

"It is your fault for staying up to late, the human body requires six to eight hours of sleep to perform at its best capacity." Cameron rambled on.

"You are so annoying sometimes, you know that Cam?" Mark said sitting up in bed and started to get ready for the day.

"I know, but your job is important to me. I need that power module." Cameron reminded him.

Mark grabbed a breakfast bar and headed out to work while Cameron went back in the basement to continue her research and simulations on adding liquid metal to coltan. Her mind couldn't help but wonder about since she has been activated, that she hasn't seen John at all. She knew he would be mad at her for disobeying his orders, but she justified it to herself that she would sacrifice herself to stop Skynet any day and any time to protect him.

Mark made it to work five minutes ahead of time and fired up his computer so he could check his email and start working on the tasks assigned to him that day.

"I could have slept for another five minutes." Mark mumbled to himself.

"Good Morning Mark!" Liz cheerfully greeted him like normal.

"Liz, what do you have for breakfast, or are you just a huge morning person?" Mark questioned the ever happy Liz.

"Coffee is a wonderful thing, Mark." Liz commented to him.

Mark worked for a few hours before one of his managers came up to his desk.

"Got a couple of minutes?" his manager asked.

"You're the boss, boss." Mark chimed back with a smile.

"Come with me." The manager asked.

Mark walked into his office and noticed Liz and two other managers awaiting him in his office.

"Close the door, please." One of the other managers asked of Mark.

Mark did what they asked and he quietly shut the door behind him.

"Mark, your security clearance came back this morning, which is the fastest we ever got anyone cleared before, and we are proud to say you have the level of clearance for a certain project that we would like you to work on given your skill set." His manager said.

"You will be working on this project with Liz, and there are only two of you on this project. You will report back to us on a daily basis via paperwork on all your findings, thoughts, and so on. It is a lab environment, so expect 5 hours of testing and research and about 3 hours of paperwork and reporting back. This project is for your eyes only and cannot be discussed outside this building or to anyone, including family and friends. Are you interested?" His manager explained to him.

"Definitely!" Mark said with a bit too much enthusiasm.

His manager smiled and informed him that he would get the paperwork and contract written up within the hour so he could start immediately.

"So may I ask what it is about since I agreed to it?" Mark asked.

"I am afraid I can't until all the paperwork is done, but I can say it is a one of a kind technology breakthrough and with luck, Liz and yourself will be able to carefully study it so we can mimic its technology and weaponize it." His boss told him.

Both managers stood up and shook Mark's hand and told Liz and Mark to go ahead and take an early yet extended lunch and by the time they got back, the paperwork should be ready.

"Isn't this exciting?" Liz asked Mark.

"I think this will be awesome." Mark replied to Liz. "Have you already worked on this project or did they get you in on this today as well?"

"They told me about it last week, but I have not seen what they are taking about. They wanted to wait for your clearance first, so there were two of us." Liz told Mark.

"Neat." Mark replied, so where do you want to go for lunch?"

"Up to you partner!" Liz cheerfully told him.

"How does a steak house sound?" Mark asked.

"That works with me!" Liz told him.

"I'm Sorry, John" Cameron said standing in front of a mirror. "Before you hate me forever, know that I did it for you. Things got out of control and I had to save your mother and prevent Skynet from advancing. I am your protector and I love you, I hope you know that." Cameron rehearsed to herself for a fourth time that morning.

She repeated the same thoughts a couple more times changing the structure and wording of the apology until she thought it would be the best way to get John to look at her and talk to her again.

She made her way up to John's room and knocked on his door. No one answered so she tried again. Still no one responded. She quietly opened the door and looked inside. It appeared he was in bed sleeping.

"John." She said, but he didn't move.

She walked up to his bed and sat down on it, and she put her arm on him. "I'm Sorry." She started to say, before her hand sunk into him. She lifted away the comforter to reveal only pillows to create an image that he was in bed. She stood up off the bed and started looking around the room for clues to where he might be. She came up with nothing. She walked out of his room and walked past Nicole's room and flung open the door. Nicole was half asleep in bed.

"Don't you knock?" Nicole yelled at Cameron.

"It is almost noon, why are you in bed?" Cameron asked.

"In the future, we hunt at night and sleep during the day. You of all people should know that." Nicole snapped at Cameron.

"It isn't the future yet." Cameron replied. "Where is John?"

"No idea." Nicole said turning over in bed. "He is probably at work or the gun range."

"When is the last time you seen him?" Cameron asked.

"Two days ago, I was checking out his arm that he said was bothering him. It was nothing but some unknown caused bruises." Nicole told her.

Cameron shut the door behind her and started to head out of the house when her CPU reminded her that she only had thirty four minutes remaining before her battery pack would fail her.

Cameron wanted to clear her mind off of why John seemed to be avoiding home so she started on her fifteen minute standard patrol routine to ensure the area was still safe. Ever since the mysterious driver and car was in the driveway, she was patrolling four times a day.

As she was finishing her patrol she noticed a small trace of smoke coming from the shed out in the back of the house. Carefully she reached for her pistol and armed it while taking the long way around to get to the shed. Her CPU reminded her that she only had fifteen minutes remaining before total system shutdown. She continued on towards her track and approached the shed. She saw the smoke was getting stronger, but it wasn't a fire because it was too small for that. She quietly stepped around the corner with her gun ready and saw someone sitting on the ground half hunched over with a cigarette in his hand. The other hand was holding a bottle of hard liquor. Cameron walked closer to the man and lightly kicked him in the leg to grab his attention.

The man slowly moved his head and looked at Cameron before putting the cigarette to his lips. His attempted to say something before Cameron stopped him.

"John?" Cameron asked before putting her gun away. She grabbed his hat and threw it on the ground so she could get a good look at him.

"Cameron. How.. how.. is you.." John said intoxicated out of his mind sounding almost happy.

"What have you done to yourself?" Cameron asked demanding answers.

"Trying to escape from it all. The machine at work, my life, you being dead." John said almost before passing out.

Cameron felt his neck analyzed his condition and her CPU was alerted that John was at a 78% risk of alcohol poisoning judging from the sweat coming from his pores.

Cameron forced him to his own two feet. "You need to rid yourself of the alcohol you have been drinking."

John seemed upset that she was forcing him up. "You have a lot to explain to me." He rambled out. "and I don't have to do anything I don't want to." He rambled on staggering around trying to stand up straight.

"I see. " Cameron angrily said. "Add this to the list." Cameron told him punching him in the stomach causing John to throw up the contents of his stomach on the ground. After he finished, he passed out.

Cameron attempted to carry him back, but due to her damage, she was unable too. She resorted to grabbing him by his coat and started to drag him like a rag doll back to the house. Her CPU warned her that she only had three minutes before system shutdown. As she entered the house she dragged him towards Nicole's room and flung open the door. Nicole was startled and sat straight up in bed looking over Cameron and John on the ground.

"Clean him up and if he leaves, you will personally deal with me." Cameron demanded of Nicole and flashed her red terminator eyes at her.

Nicole nodded her head in agreement and a little bit of fear from Cameron. Cameron flung John up on his bed and she went down stairs in the basement and quickly plugged her battery pack into the wall before she shut down.

Sarah was home on her lunch break and heard the commotion in the house and walked down to the basement to see what Cameron was apparently upset about. As she approached the basement she saw Cameron alone in the basement and she put her hands on her head in frustration and a small tear formed in her right eye.

Mark and Liz got back from lunch and their managers pulled them into the office and handed them a new badge and pass code so they could get into the vault. He informed them that today is just a meet and greet with the technology, so don't worry about the paperwork for today, just study it and get ready for tomorrow to start the official lab work.

Liz and Mark took the badges and walked to the vault which was protected by an armed guard.

"Good afternoon." The guard said. "Whenever you need access to the vault just let me know. We both have to use our badges and pass codes to grant you access." He continued.

"Wow, talk about high tech stuff!" Liz said with a bit of excitement that the guard didn't seem to enjoy.

As they walked into the hall leading to the vault room past the armed guard, a high pressurized air system came on to remove all dust, static, and loose debris from their bodies.

"There goes my good hair day." Liz told Mark has her hair been blown around everywhere. She took a rubber band from her pocket and put her hair up into a ponytail.

They both entered the vault room and where amazed to see everything that was inside. Mark saw all sorts of high tech equipment that he has never seen before. As he scanned the room he noticed at least twenty cameras looking at the room from every angle. He never had seen such high security before. As he looked around, he saw Sonya's deactivated body on the far end of the room lying on a bed table.

Liz caught Mark looking at Sonya and walked up to him. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Why is there a dead body in here?" Mark said acting like he was a little uncomfortable.

Liz walked up to Sonya's body calmly and motioned Mark to come over. "I don't think it's human." Liz told him. She turned Sonya's head to the side to show Mark a large hole where Sonya's CPU used to be.

"It's like a robot or a machine or something." Liz told Mark. "Have you ever seen anything like it?" she asked immediately staring into Mark's eyes.

"No," Mark quietly said. "Never in my wildest of dreams." He told her convincingly.

Mark continued to look around the other things in the room but often his attention would drift back to Sonya's body.

"Now, all I have to do tomorrow is swap power supplies, get a piece of coltan from her, and not get caught." Mark told himself. "Mission Impossible, here I come." He thought wiping the sweat from his brow and listening to his rapid beating heart.


	69. Sneaky Sneaky

**Chapter 69: Sneaky Sneaky**

Mark got back home from work to a quiet house. He asked out loud if anyone was home and he got no response. He ignored the quietness and headed for the basement to collect his thoughts and attempted to plot out a plan on how to steal Sonya's power supply without getting caught. There he found Cameron analyzing data from the computer that James Ellison gave them.

"So I need some advice." Mark asked her.

Cameron didn't respond to Mark, but continued staring at the computer screen.

"I see your powers of blocking out Mark have returned to full strength!" Mark jestered.

"Sorry." Cameron said softly turning her head to Mark.

Mark noticed immediately that Cameron had seemed to have a couple tears running down her face.

"What happened?" Mark said putting his bag down and pulling up a chair. He opened up a bottle of water and waited for Cameron to tell her story.

"I found John yesterday outside the house. According to his blood makeup I analyzed, he has been abusing alcohol and smoking." Cameron told Mark.

"I see." Mark said. "So are you shedding a few tears that you just whooped his ass?" Mark jokingly told Cameron to lighten the mood.

"Sarah is watching over him as we speak." Cameron said to Mark. "I am failing him."

"So John was being a moron, you kicked his ass, and we move on to the next day. He probably had a shitty day or week." Mark told Cameron bluntly. "There is nothing you did wrong, and it is not your fault. You didn't fail. This whole concept of getting machines to spray bullets at our butts is sort of stressful."

Cameron stared at him blankly for a while. "You are doing alright."

"I do my best to block it out. Besides, I don't have anyone to kick my ass if I get out of line." Mark told her with a weak smile. Cameron, go up and sit by him. He may not be in his right mind for a while, but you won't get anything done down here if all your CPU cycles are trying to figure out John Connor's reasons for self-destruction." Mark explained to Cameron.

"I already know why." Cameron told Mark, "He already told me."

"That doesn't matter. Mark responded back to Cameron. "Sometimes it's more helpful just being there, ya know?"

"I don't understand." Cameron said to Mark.

"I am sure in the future John did some missions without you. He would come back just fine, but you probably preferred to go with him just for that sake of mind." Mark pointed out to Cameron.

"Thank you for explaining." Cameron said with a weak smile and headed up to John's room.

As she approached John's room she overheard Sarah and John talking. Cameron stopped in her tracks and began to eavesdrop on them. She listened to John apologize to his mother for acting stupid. Sarah convincingly got John to tell what led to the drinking and John hesitated before telling her the truth.

"It started at work." John began his story. "I was finishing up a shift and as I was leaving I was going to see if the other new guy needed help unloading the truck we got in that night. As I turned the corner, the truck lift was running but no one was in it. I looked a little more and found the new guy lifting him steel beams and walking around with them like it was nothing. It donned on me that he was a machine, so I bolted out of work. All I could think about was that a machine was that close to me and I was unaware and defenseless. That's when I stopped going to work. I tried looking elsewhere for work but all I could think about was the machines. I don't have anyone to protect me. You are only human mom. Cameron is broke, and isn't a match for any battle now. If a machine figures anything out, I am as good as dead." He continued to explain to his mother.

"I will protect you John." Sarah told him. "I promise with my life."

"I just want a normal life." John cried out to his mother.

Sarah remained sitting on John's bed watching him fall asleep; she looked up towards the door and saw Cameron watching them both. Before Sarah could say anything, Cameron just nodded her head at Sarah before leaving the area. For a brief while, Sarah felt remorse for Cameron since she figured she had been listening in on the whole conversation. Cameron walked downstairs and back to the basement where Mark was at.

Mark's eyes were closed with his head resting on the chair's back with a laptop resting on his lap. Cameron carefully lifted up the laptop from Mark's lap and looked at the screen. It was part of the information about mixing the coltan with liquid metal and the requirements. Cameron looked at the table where Mark put a single coltan bolt from Sonya's endoskeleton for Cameron to test with.

"Thank you, Mark." She said to herself quietly.

The next day Mark woke up extremely early in the morning from the basement and saw that his laptop and Coltan bolt on the table was gone. Instead, he saw Cameron's destroyed power module.

"Yeah yeah woman, I'm working on it." Mark yawned to himself. Mark slowly walked up the stairs then suddenly stopped. He turned around and created a rather large smile on his face.

Mark and Liz worked until lunch on various things in the lab and for the most part it was just picking objects up and studying them. Lunch was about the normal routine. Mark convinced Liz to go to a sandwich shop and they ate discussing what they think they know about from the lab in a quiet voice so others couldn't make out what they were saying.

"So I have a curiosity I need to fulfill when we get back to work." Mark told Liz.

"What's that?" Liz cheerfully as normal asked.

"So that robot thing in the back of the lab. Does it have a brain and heart like we do? Or is it something completely different?" Mark pondered in front of Liz.

"That would be quite interesting. I would love to see what kind of processor it has!" Liz commented.

They rushed lunch and Mark ordered some coffee and back to the lab they went. After passing clearance, they headed into the lab and both of them stared at the machine in the back of the lab.

Mark walked over to Sonya's inactive body and for a while sort of gazed at her.

"Sorry." He said whispering to himself.

It took a screwdriver and started tapping the top of her skull trying to locate her port cover. Since he knew for a fact the chip and the port cover was missing, he quickly rediscovered the hole and beckoned Liz to come over.

"She is still bleeding! Well a little, that is so creepy." Liz said with a little bit of disgust.

"Look here!" Mark said trying to ignore her comment.

Mark showed her a where the port cover would have been and the missing spot of her CPU.

"Where is her CPU at?" Liz asked out loud. "Someone has already taken it."

"Maybe whatever killed it, did it by breaking the chip or something?" Mark explained to Liz then trying to make it sound like maybe it was a cool robot war of some sorts.

Liz just stared at Mark and then let out a smile. "You boys and your robot fantasies of war."

"Well something had to do something to kill it. Maybe the chip or something is the only way." Mark told her.

"I wonder if the power supply is the heart then?" Liz asked Mark promptly.

"I have no idea. It is a metal skeleton." Mark told Liz.

Mark used the screwdriver and lightly stabbed Sonya's breastplate. "No way we are getting through this in a timely manner." He told her.

"Did you want to strip the flesh away from the metal so we know what we are doing?" Mark asked Liz.

"Ew! Hell no!" Liz said to Mark rather quickly.

"I have an idea but it's gross." Mark told her.

Mark took a small knife and slowly cut Sonya's underneath her breastplate.

"I hope I don't hurl!" Mark said. He slowly started sticking his hand into Sonya while making faces of disgust and eventually getting his whole hand under her breastplate.

"You feel anything?" Liz asked almost creepily cheering him on.

"Nothing yet." Mark said sinking his arm in a little deeper. "Whoa!" Mark said.

"What is it?" Liz begged Mark for answers.

"I think I have something!" Mark told Liz pulling his hand out of the broken machine.

Mark moved his hand towards Liz's hand and dropped Cameron's destroyed power module in it.

"WOW!" Liz squealed with excitement. "This looks so advanced!" The excitement slowed a little when she realized it was destroyed. "Damn it looks like it is broken." She continued.

"I felt the other piece of it I think in there. This felt like it was floating around so I grabbed it." Mark explained to Liz. "Oh man, this sucks!" he continued.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked.

"I have machine guts all over my new long sleeve shirt!" Mark told her. "Looks like this shirt is a one and done. So much for impressing management!" he continued.

The phone rang from in the lab and Liz picked it up. "Yes sir!" Liz said on the phone.

"Mark, the boss wants to see us!" Liz told him.

"Must be the shirt!" Mark said casually.

As they entered the exit door, the guard patted down Liz and told her she was free to go. As the guard patted down Mark, he stopped and looked at him. "You aren't doing anything stupid today right?" the guard asked him.

"No sir, that's tomorrow when I go shopping with Liz." Mark quickly replied.

The guard laughed. "Well I don't feel like getting machine goo on me, so I will just take your word for today."

Mark and Liz continued to the boss's office where he was waiting for them. "We were watching on the video camera when you found it! May I?" the boss told them.

"Sure!" Liz said putting the power module on the table."

"This is going to be a huge breakthrough I can feel it!" he said. "Look, normally I would have you both report everything you did today, but when we saw you work with the machine, we watched. It wasn't protocol, but I can overlook it this time. Why don't you both take the rest of the day off. You earned it." He continued.

"Thanks sir!" Liz told him.

As they both headed for the door. He stopped Mark.

"Mark, take this lab coat of mine. No offence, but I don't think you want to leave the building and walk around in the common area looking like you killed someone." He said.

They joked around for a couple of minutes then Mark headed out the door.

"So do you have any plans for the rest of your day off?" Liz asked Mark.

"Well I guess I will go shower up then I am not sure." Mark told her.

"Maybe we could get together tonight or something." Liz forwardly asked him.

"Yeah that sounds nice." Mark told her. "How about I pick you up around six, we can get dinner, and catch a movie and then go from there." He explained to her.

"Sounds excellent." She said to him as they went their separate ways.

Mark walked towards his car and got in and looked around. He saw no one around and slid Sonya's power module from his long shirt sleeve to his hands and looked at it in front of him.

"Mission Impossible, eat your heart out!" Mark said to himself as he hummed the theme song on the way home.

As Mark finally got home, he was still humming the Mission Impossible theme and tapping the steering wheel very pleased with himself. He pulled in the driveway and turned the engine off and got out of the car. Holding the chip in his hand he noticed the door was wide open. As he looked closer, he realized it was kicked down.

"Oh this can't be good." Mark said as he quietly walked towards the door.

"This is a really stupid idea Mark." He told himself as he walked in the house.

_Next Week's Chapter: Cameron's Revenge_


	70. Cameron's Revenge

**Chapter 70: Cameron's Revenge**

Mark looked around the inside of the house to see if he was able to figure out what happened. He found some furniture thrown about, so he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. Mark silenced himself in fear that the attacker was still inside of the house. He headed towards the basement to find Cameron as he figured that would have been his first and best line of protection. He quietly walked down the stairs and found Cameron thrown against a corner deactivated with her leg twisted around He looked on the stairs and saw the battery pack that he designed for Cameron. He jogged down the stairs and picked up a box cutter that was on the table.

"Whoa." Mark said to himself."Now this looks neat!" he continued as he saw Cameron was experimenting combining liquid metal with coltan. Mark noticed that she had her heating source still on and the liquid metal looked no different.

"Focus Mark, Focus." Mark reminded himself. "Dangers and doom is about." He joked to himself. He rolled Cameron on her back and dragged her so she was laying flat and then lifted up her shirt to her upper stomach.

"This terminator surgeon job is getting old" Mark told himself as he sliced her stomach open with the box cutter. "I knew I should have just had her keep her breastplate off, but no... Let's do it the gross way." He continued to mumble to himself.

He took the power module and made a fist around it to protect it. He slowly reached his hand into Cameron's stomach and made his way to her power supply socket. He opened his fist and carefully felt around to find the power module socket. After multiple seconds of trial and error, Mark found it and plugged Sonya's power module into Cameron's socket and lightly twisted it to lock it in place. Mark's eyes opened a little bigger as he saw a dim glow come from her abdomen. He extracted his hand and wiped it off the blood and liquid on her shirt and then pulled her shirt down.

"Okay, T minus two minutes. What to do, what to do." Mark nervously talked to himself.

Mark looked around the room and found Cameron's shotgun lying on the floor. He picked it up and checked for shells. There were five shots remaining. He pumped it and slowly walked up the stairs.

When he arrived back on the first floor he heard Sarah yelling for John to get down and sounded like a clip of bullets started bouncing off of metal upstairs.

"Shit Shit Shit!" Mark said to himself gripping the shotgun tight and hustling up the stairs to the second floor. He turned the corner and there was a man dressed in a factory outfit slowly stalking Sarah with John standing tall behind her. Sarah spotted Mark behind the machine and watched the machine close distance on her.

Sarah pushed John to the side of the room and Sarah dove over by him. "Shoot!" she yelled.

Mark pulled the trigger and an array of buckshot sped their way to the machine's back causing him to stubble towards the window. The machine turned around sizing up Mark and his weapon. Mark pumped the shotgun again and fired, the closeness of the shot was able to knock the terminator out of the window and fell down to the ground.

Mark was proud of himself as the machine lied still on the ground and Mark cracked a smile at the machine on the ground and he drew his hand up and flipped off the machine.

"Don't get cocky." Sarah said grabbing him by the arm. "We have to get out of here or we are dead." She told Mark looking back at the machine that was still on the ground.

They made their way back downstairs to head towards the garage to escape in the car.

Sarah heard footsteps coming from the basement and was highly relieved to see Cameron limp up the stairs without her battery pack.

"You look like something that just came out of a horror movie. Are you functional?" Sarah asked her.

"I'll be fine. Where is the machine?" Cameron seriously asked.

"Mark shot it out the window." Sarah informed her.

Mark looked at Cameron and she nodded at her with respect of bringing her back to life. Mark tossed her the shotgun and Cameron looked at it and gripped it. She opened up the front door to be met by the machine Mark shot out of the window. She unloaded two shots into the terminator causing it to stagger back, but before she could pump the shotgun and get the third shot off, the terminator guarded itself and knocked the shotgun out of her grip to the ground. Cameron attempted to hit terminator with her fist, but it deflected it and grabbed her pushed her back into the house with the others. The machine purposely tripped her down to the floor to gain leverage on her.

Sarah reloaded her pistol and emptied another clip in the terminators skull but it was effortless. The terminator was more annoyed than anything. He started towards Sarah, but Cameron grabbed its leg. The machine stood tall over Cameron and lifted up his leg and drove his foot down on Cameron's leg releasing a sickly metal crunching noise. Cameron reached for her freshly damaged leg and the terminator attacked her again only this time on her arm. Toying with Cameron it picked her up and threw her back down the stairs. Cameron struggled to get back to her feet. The machine turned around to find John Connor and was met by Mark unloading the last of the shotgun rounds into the machines chest causing the machine to start wobbling about to fall down the stairs.

"Run!" Mark said throwing himself at the machine creating just enough momentum to cause the machine and Mark to fall down the steps. Sarah pushed John towards the garage and saw the machine lift Mark off up him and throw him into the stove area. Mark was unconscinece and bounced off the wall knocking a lot of things down in the process.

The machine got to its feet and almost out of rage picked Cameron up and rammed her feet first into the concrete wall causing the wall of the basement to crumble down on top of Cameron followed by a lot of dirt.

Cameron lay motionless with her HUD flashing catastrophic damage to her lower extremities and left arm. She watched the machine continue its quest of assassination and left up the stairs.

Cameron attempted to free herself from the rubble but was unsuccessful as her arm keep scratching the floor trying desperately to rescue John. Mark slowly regained consciousness and watched Cameron claw so hard she peeled away her flesh from her fingertips and showed her small coltan fingertips. Mark looked up noticing he was next to the stove and with a last ditch effort reached up and knocked over the container of heated liquid metal causing it to fall to the ground and create a shiny silver pool of liquid on the ground about 6 inches from Cameron.

Mark looked over at Cameron and made a coy smile at her then looked at the silver liquid metal pool.

Cameron stopped her attempt at breaking free from the rubble and looked at Mark, then the silver puddle. She reached her arm over and dipped her exposed fingers into the edge of the liquid metal. Mark watched as the liquid metal didn't react with her coltan frame and he let out a small yet painful disappointing sigh. Cameron looked defeated when suddenly the liquid metal started to ooze and slowly pull itself onto her fingers and the pool started to pull itself towards Cameron. Mark watched the pool of liquid metal completely disappear onto Cameron fingertips and under her flesh. He saw her fingertips look like the liquid metal lightly painted itself onto her coltan. Cameron looked like she was starting to sweat and started to look like she was having a seizure.

"Cameron?" Mark yelled.

Cameron's eyes flashed bright red and back to normal as her head fell to the ground and she again was motionless. The room smelled of burnt flesh and some horrible metal smell.

Mark slowly got to his feet and noticed his arm and right leg was killing him with pain. He limped over to Cameron and attempted to free her from the rubble but his grip slipped and he fell on his butt. Mark looked around the room for anything to help free her and attempt to revive her if anything.

Mark looked at Cameron again and saw her red terminator eyes appear again under her eye lids.

Cameron's red glow from her eyes disappeared and she opened her eyes and looked at Mark. She used her one arm and boosted herself up as if she was doing a one handed pushup. She unpinned her other arm and dirt came flying out of her way as she pulled her leg from the dirt one by one and stood up tall in front of Mark. She reached her hand out and grabbed Mark's hand a powered up him to his feet with little effort. Mark stood face to face with her a little shocked and impressed.

"Are you?" Mark started to say.

"100% percent?" Cameron cut him off. "Yes." She said.

Cameron smiled at him and walked around him and marched up the stairs with no limp present wasting little time.

Mark smiled at himself and pumped his fist a little bit.

"Damn, I'm good." He said limping up the stairs behind her.

Cameron and Mark headed to the garage to find and rescue the Connors.

Cameron went around to the front door and Mark went to the back door.

Mark peeked around the corner and saw the machine with Sarah in his grips.

"Call to him. Call to John." The machine said.

"Never. I would rather die." Sarah spat in the machines face.

Mark saw John in the corner hiding behind the car.

"Hey asshole!" Mark said. "Over here!"

The machine dropped Sarah and she was shocked to see Mark standing there.

Cameron walked into the garage unnoticed since the door was opened for the getaway plan.

As the machine got to Mark, Mark grinned at the machine and pointed behind him towards Cameron.

The machine turned around to see a bloodied and beaten up looking Cameron. It attempted to punch Cameron in the face and it succeeded. Cameron's face turned a little and she pointed her eyes back at the machine. The terminator when for another attack but Cameron grabbed its fist. John stood up watching Cameron twist and turn the machine down to the ground on its knees with her grip of its fist listening to metal fold and give out in the process.

The machine attempted to free itself from Cameron's grip by grabbing her lower left leg and attempted to pull it. Cameron was wiser to the terminator's decision and kneed the machine in the face. She positioned herself behind machine and slid her arm around the terminator's neck.

"You're terminated." Cameron said to the machine and with a swift pull Cameron broke the machines neck a little over 145 degrees breaking the machine's power cord that led to its CPU.

The machine collapsed on the ground motionless and Cameron wiped machine blood off on her shirt.

Sarah felt goose bumps form on her skin and she looked over at her son reaching in his pocket for a cigarette. He nervously and slightly shaking put it on his lips and reached for his lighter. Cameron walked over to John and picked him up by his shirt slightly ripping it and pushed him against the wall. Cameron looking up at John took her free hand and grabbed the cigarette from his lips and crushed it in his fist.

"John Connor doesn't smoke. Are we clear?" Cameron asked John.

John looked at her and nodded his head and she put him back on his feet then walking away from him.

"You just got owned!" Mark said laughing at John as he was holding his hurting arm.

Sarah walked over to Cameron. "I have questions."

Cameron looked at Sarah in the eyes. "I have answers." she replied to her picking up the terminated machine and headed back inside the house.


	71. Introductions

**Author Note: I have heard a few comments about concern for the overall length of my story. It is true I could have probably broken this story into 1 or 2, perhaps 3 complete stories, but right now I like having it as one. On a future date, I would like to revisit my story and fix some of the chapters I am not 100% happy with. It wont be ground breaking, but it could support my story and add some side story. I have the outline of the completion of my story done in my mind and that is about 10-15 more chapters. Grant that it could be more or less, only time will tell! Anyhow, here is my next chapter. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 71: Introductions**

Sarah pursued Cameron back down to the basement after talking with her son and making sure he was okay. Cameron placed the terminated assassin on the ground against the wall and Sarah caught her with a box cutter wasting no time to retrieve the terminator's CPU.

"Is it bad that my stomach doesn't even turn anymore when you cut up a machine like a piece of meat?" Sarah asked Cameron letting her know she was down there with her.

"After everything we have been through? No." Cameron responded to Sarah.

Sarah watched Cameron plug the CPU into one of the many laptops assuming she was going to try and see what the machine's mission was and if it had any other relevant data.

"So are you going to explain to me how about an hour ago, you were pretty much strap metal, and now you appear to be the queen of the machines?" Sarah impatiently asked.

"Mark was able to retrieve Sonya's power module and he somewhat correctly installed it in me. Afterwards by what you humans would call a stroke of luck, the heated liquid metal from Catherine Weaver bonded to my coltan skeleton. During the heat reaction, it broke down my coltan frame almost to a thick gel. Assuming that it used the exact specs from my CPU, it reformed my endoskeleton back to its original undamaged form. I am not sure about the rest since it crashed my CPU due to overheating, but after I booted up, my skeleton was cooling off back to normal temperatures and my strength increased greatly." Cameron explained to Sarah sitting down in the chair.

"So it bonded with you and now your back to 100% and a little stronger." Sarah summarized.

"Yes." Cameron said shortly.

"How much stronger?" Mark asked walking down the stairs.

Cameron looked around the room and picked up a piece of brick lying on the ground. She picked it up and squeezed it in her right hand until the brick shattered into fragments and dust falling to the ground. Cameron stared blankly at the both of them for a few seconds until she answered them.

"From that test, 57.21% stronger" she told them with a smile.

"Good" Sarah said and took her leave back up the stairs.

"So how does that match you up against a T-800 Series?" Mark curiously asked.

"I have an advantage of about 20% if my simulations are correct." Cameron answered Mark.

Cameron put down the CPU and walked up to Mark.

"You saved John, and my life." She told him in complete seriousness. "You are a great ally. Thank you."

Mark sort of nodded at her and smiled. "Well maybe you can give me some pointers with human females sometimes." He asked Cameron.

"Females are highly complicated beings." Cameron told Mark.

"No shit!" Mark blurted out without thinking.

Cameron smiled. "Is this about Liz?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am supposed to go out with her tonight. She's pretty cool. She is nerdy, smart, into machines and tech stuff." Mark explained to Cameron.

"Good." Cameron told Mark and she began writing down something on a piece of paper. She handed it to Mark and headed up stairs. "Take her there if dinner goes well." She told him.

Mark looked at the paper and admitted to himself that her idea was brilliant. He looked at the time and headed upstairs to the bathroom and began getting ready for his date.

As Mark headed out he saw John and Cameron speaking to each other. He didn't want to disturb them so he continued on his way. He checked his phone and had a text from Liz saying six was perfect. Mark being a little nervous left early and got to the restaurant about thirty minutes early. Not wanting to wait around, he walked over to the electronics store and started looking around. He checked out the new laptops on sale, and then checked out the newest DVD releases. As he was looking he saw a couple holding hands down a few aisles over. He didn't think of it much, but that girl body type reminded him of Liz.

"Maybe this is a sign." Mark said to himself. He still had about twenty minutes to burn so he continued looking. He started staring at the couple more and more this girl resembled Liz. He couldn't see her face, but Mark's mind started connecting the dots. He carefully walked by the couple about 5 rows away so he could see their faces. In Mark's complete shock, he recognized the guy was Brian from work and indeed the girl was Liz.

"What the hell?" Mark asked himself, this doesn't make any sense.

He looked again and saw Brian pull two tickets from his leather coat and showed them to Liz. She seemed really excited. Mark looked down for a moment and felt his phone vibrate. It was a text from Liz.

"Hey Mark, I can't make it tonight. Something just came up that I can't get out of. See ya tomorrow at the office! Sorry!"

Mark looked back up and saw Liz put her phone in her purse and give Brian a big kiss and hug and they left the store. Mark waited a while then headed back to his car and went back home.

Mark unlocked the front door and headed towards the kitchen. As he got there he noticed everyone was sitting down at the living room table eating dinner.

"I thought you were going to get dinner with Liz tonight?" Sarah asked Mark.

"Ah, change of plans it seems." Mark answered Sarah.

"Well come join us then." She told him.

Mark sat down at the table and ate some of the food that was left on the table. After they finished eating Mark got up and helped clear the table. Cameron confronted him.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I guess she likes another guy better." Mark told her with some disappointment.

"Sorry." Cameron told Mark giving him a slight hug. "If you want, you can help interrogate Nicole's date she is bringing over later tonight."

Mark looked at Cameron a little confused.

"He is actually one of John's military officers in the war years from now. He commands one of John's smaller divisions." Cameron told him.

"I think that is messed up that she knows he never got married in the future so she is trying to date him now." John chimed in.

"Dude, that is kind of lame." Mark added in. "Won't that sort of have an effect on the future?"

"Nothing negative." Cameron answered Mark. "The benefits outweigh the risks. If he accepts what really is out there now in this time. He would be a strong ally for John to help get him prepared for now. He can teach John about human tactics and strategy, more than what I could."

"I see." Mark said. "So when are they getting here?"

"About an hour I think." John said.

They all sat down by the television and flipped through the channels. Mark stopped at wrestling and laughed at some of the moves. The main event was coming up and Mark told Cameron to watch closely. Cameron watched as a wrestler jumped from the top ropes and basically sat on the opponents shoulders. The wrestler had his legs around the other wrestler's neck and did a high speed twist move that sent the other wrestler spinning down to the ground face first. The other wrestler rolled him over and pinned him and won the match.

"The move is so awesome!"Mark told Cameron and John.

"It is dangerous." Cameron said. Without proper training and practice, he could have broken his fellow wrestler's neck."

"Admit it; it's a sweet move!" Mark fired back. "Twenty bucks says Cameron could do that to a triple eight as a finisher"

"I don't think she needs to risk herself doing cool finishing moves on machines Mark. Wrestling has a script, we don't." John said sort of seriously.

"Just saying, it would be sweet to see it. Not saying she should do it." Mark said with defeat.

The doorbell broke the silence and Cameron got up to answer the door. She saw Nicole standing with her date's hand folded in hers.

"This is Nick." Nicole said introducing him to Cameron. "Be nice."

Cameron invited him in the house and he walked in. Sarah offered him a drink and he waved his hand in a no like manner.

Cameron and John made small talk with Nick and Nicole then Cameron headed straight for business.

"There are many things we need to chat about Nick. There are a lot of unexplainable things out there. I have information about these events and issues, but be warned, once you know of them, you are committing to the cause so to speak. If you don't want to hear what I have to say, then I will tell you to have a nice life, and never look anyone of the house up ever again." Cameron explained to him.

"Nicole said it was something deep about machines and man at war or something to that nature. It sounds like a long conversation, so let's do this. I bought us four tickets to a show tonight. Let's enjoy ourselves and then you can tell me all about it. At least I can say I had fun at least one more night without knowing some crazy conspiracy theory." Nick said.

Nicole looked at Nick and was instantly excited. "Let's go guys. This will be fun!"

"Well there are five of us." John mentioned to Nick.

"We'll Nicole said we were going on a double date later tonight, so yeah. Besides this show is basically to score points with the ladies so Mark wouldn't want to go anyway." Nick said reaching out for Nicole's hand and started towards the door.

John sort of stayed quiet and followed Nick and Nicole. Cameron turned to look at Mark for a moment then followed John. Cameron shut the door behind her and Sarah walked up to Mark.

"I guess it's a television night for us." She said patting Mark's shoulder.

Mark just sort of nodded and grabbed his laptop out the basement and sat of the sofa in front of the television that Sarah was surfing.

"We need to swing by my house real fast to pick up the tickets." Nick said.

"That's fine with me" Nicole said playing with the air conditioner and the radio."

John and Cameron sat in the back and reminded quiet. After about ten minutes on the road they reached Nick's house. It was a pretty nice sized house almost out of Nick's pay grade for his age. It was one story and if John had to guess about two thousand square feet.

Nick pulled into the driveway and stopped behind a small compact car.

"That's odd." Nick said. I'm not expecting company.

"Get out of the truck Nicole. I need to get out, now." Cameron commanded Nicole.

Nicole took her sweet time getting out of the truck before Cameron was able to get out.

"Stay here." Cameron told her.

"Where are you going?" Nick said a little upset.

"I'm going to go find your unwanted guest." Cameron said to Nick.

"Whoever the hell is in my house, get out or I will call the cops!" Nick yelled over Cameron's shoulder.

Cameron forcefully pushed Nick into the truck and told him to shut up and stay in the vehicle.

"It's probably nothing big." Nick told her after being somewhat shocked by her strength.

Cameron looked at him when suddenly Nick's front door was kicked off the hinges.

A man in a leather coat with a laser sighted handgun followed out the newly opened doorway. Cameron saw a small red dot appear on Nick's chest and she stood in the path of the dot.

The man shot the gun and the sound of metal ricocheted was heard.

Nick looked at Cameron who turned her face towards him. He saw a small silver streak on Cameron's cheek outlined in blood.

"Get in the truck." She said pushing Nick backwards.

"Where are you going?" Nick yelled at Cameron from behind the truck as she was walking towards the man.

"I'm going to go introduce myself to your guest." Cameron told him.


	72. Sooner than Expected

**Chapter 72: Sooner than Expected**

Nick watched behind the truck as a lightweight girl that was Cameron approached a fairly good sized man. He kneeled with confusion watching her take multiple gunshots to the chest and not miss a beat. She slapped the gun out from the man's hand and a shoving match engaged. Nick took his keys from his pocket and fumbled them and dropped them on the driveway. He scrambled to pick them up and nervously opened his trunk and grabbed a sport's rifle and cocked it to load a bullet into the chamber.

John got out of the vehicle and rushed towards the back to Nick.

"Don't bother," John grumbled to Nick. "This is going to look really messed up, and it is. But we will explain everything." He attempted to explain to Nick.

Nick looked at him like he was out of his mind and went to the side of the truck and took aim at the man. He was unable to get a clean shot due to Cameron and him trading defensive hand to hand combat moves. After a bit Cameron was able to gain position on the man and swung him into a massive oak tree. The force of the throw shattered part of the oak tree's truck and started to tilt on top of him. The man attempted to pick himself up before getting met with Cameron's right fist and a big kick to the chest cracking and splintering the truck even more. The man reattempted to get up but the sheer weight of the oak tree not being supported by the truck collapsed on top of the man and went crashing down into Nick's house.

"No!" Nick screamed out watching the tree destroy his house. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked demanding answers.

John walked up to Nick. "She is a terminator and that guy underneath and pinned on the ground by the tree is also a terminator. The terminator under the tree works for Skynet, and they want to kill off the human race. She was like them, but was reprogrammed and fights for me and humanity."

"Don't take me for a fool." Nick snapped at John.

"He is correct for the most part." Cameron told him stalking over the pinned terminator. "John, take Nick's gun. I will show to a very small weakness on the machine. It can be your lesson for the day."

"I don't think so. You can't go around killing people. I will call the police and this robber will get his justice." Nick informed her.

"This is your chance Nick. Open your eyes and wake up, or I will personally deem you as a threat to John and handle you as well." Cameron told him.

"Are you threatening me girl?" Nick snarled at Cameron.

Nicole quickly got out of the truck and grabbed Nick's attention. "Put the gun down. This is what I told you about before Nick."

"Help me," the man said in a voice that sounded like he was in pain to Nick.

Nick scrambled over to help the man under the tree but Cameron stopped him.

"Let go of me." Nick told her.

"Don't be an idiot." Cameron told him.

Nick struggled with Cameron and she picked him up off the ground and Nick accidently pulled the trigger lodging a bullet in her thigh. She looked at Nick annoyed and dropped him on his bottom. By the looks of it Nick looked like it hurt pretty badly. Nicole rushed over to Nick's aid and Cameron looked at her new gunshot wound. She took her fingers and pushed them into the wound and plucked out the bloody bullet from her leg and bent over and opened Nick's hand. She placed the bullet on the palm of his hand. Nick looked at her leg and the bloody bullet and fear struck his face.

Cameron swiped away his rifle and handed it to John as he made his way over. John looked at the machine was attempting to push the tree off of him but due to his chest, half his head, and other arm pinned down, he was not able to brake free.

"Where do you think the vulnerable point is John?" Cameron quizzed him.

"Why don't I just cut out his chip?" John looked at her.

"Because he could still kill you if he gets his free hand on you." Cameron told him.

"I don't know." John said a little frustrated. "The eyes?"

"You would need two very good shots to blind him, but that wouldn't kill him." Cameron told him. "Since his head is turned, you have a shot at his upper spinal cord. Aim between the middle of the neck and side of his neck and shoot. It is a very small window of a shot, but you will take out all of his motor abilities, leaving him effectively terminated.

John took aim and shot the gun, but missed the machine and shot the tree

"Shut up." He said before Cameron could comment on his aim. His second shot was a little better but was too far on the side on the neck. John attempted a third shot but the gun was empty.

"Who the hell only has three rounds in his gun?" John said a little annoyed since he couldn't redeem himself.

Cameron stepped up to the machine and stepped on his hand. She took her own hand gun and shot the machine in the neck disabling it.

Nick looked at both of them like they were insane and twisted. "Murders." He said under his breath.

Cameron grabbed Nick by the arm roughly and walked him to the disabled machine. She stomped the machines skull to scrape off some of the skin. Nick looked in shock to look at the endoskeleton of the machine. "What the hell…" he whispered to himself.

"There is much we need to discuss." Cameron said. She walked over to the trunk of the tree and with her terminator strength was attempting to break the rest of the tree off the trunk and move the tree off the machine to take back with them. Cameron was unable to do so and started punching out some of the shattered tree trunk to attempt to move the tree again. As Nicole attempted to calm Nick down and explain some things Cameron broke the tree free and threw the machine in the trunk of the car.

"The night is over. It is time to go back to the house." Cameron informed them all.

Nick didn't put up much of an agreement and they all rode back home.

When they got back to the house, Nicole took Nick inside the house and John helped get the door while Cameron disposed of the terminator by storing it in the basement.

Sarah looked a little pissed and demanded explanation of what happened and why there was another machine in the basement.

"Skynet attempted to kill Nick." Cameron bluntly told her.

"You're bleeding" Sarah told her. "Go get cleaned up. I'm not interested in cleaning up more blood from the carpets again so soon."

Cameron did as Sarah asked and came back down to explain the whole story to Nick. When asking about where Mark was, Sarah told Cameron that he went back to the office and seemed a little down. Cameron just nodded with understanding and focused on Nick. Over the course of an hour, she told Nick everything about the future war, Skynet, the machines, and Judgment day. Overall Nick took it pretty well.

"So the world will be nuked to hell and humans are almost pushed to extinction until John over here saves us all. Seems hard to believe, considering he doesn't seem much of a leader or solider." Nick told them.

"I agree, he is not ready yet. But that's why I want you to teach him. I can give him knowledge of weak points on the machines, but you need to teach him human strategies, leadership, and so forth." Cameron told Nick.

"So if you know what will happen, why don't you just stop it? You seemed to beat that other machine in the basement pretty easily." Nick asked her.

"I wish it was that simple. Technically we can't stop Judgment day, only delay it. I won't be able to stop Skynet's code, only slow down its control. I believe that Skynet cannot launch an attack without enough machines to effectively take out most the humans. But I am just one machine, and I am assigned to protect John, not run out and carry out offensive targets." Cameron explained to Nick.

"Why don't we all call it an early night, it's been a trying day." Sarah told everyone.

As everyone made their way to bed, Cameron headed down in the basement to examine the terminator's CPU to see if she could get any valuable information from them. After hours of searching, Cameron heard someone come down to the basement. It was Sarah.

"I have a bad feeling that something big is going on with Skynet. We have seen a lot of machines lately." Sarah told Cameron. "Needless to say, I can't sleep."

Cameron looked at her and sort of nodded. "I would be lying if you weren't correct."

"What did you discover from your collection of dead machines?" Sarah asked her with a little more concern.

"We don't have much time." She answered Sarah.

"Judgment Day?" Sarah asked getting pale.

"Yes." Cameron responded to her.

"How much time do we have?" Sarah asked.

"About two months if Skynet's plan goes undisputed." Cameron said.

"I am ready to fight, Cameron, point me in the right direction. Two months is not enough time to get John ready. You know that." Sarah informed Cameron. "I was supposed to have two years to get him ready to be the man he needed to become. Now I have two months. How could we have missed this?"

"The chip information only had two points of key data on it. The mission expiration date of killing Nick told me when Judgment day is. The second is who or what it was supposed to report back to after completing its mission." Cameron told her.

"You mean like its boss?" Sarah asked

"Yes." Cameron answered her.

"Then we should take out that target and find out what it knows." Sarah suggested.

"I agree, but there is a problem with your strategy." Cameron told Sarah.

"What?" Sarah yelled frustrated and a little scared.

"This contact isn't tagged at a series 800 model; it is labeled as an infiltrator 900 series prototype." Cameron looked at Sarah's blank face. "It means I don't know what it is. I have no records of any 900 series prototypes." Cameron continued to explain.

"So what do we do then?" Sarah asked impatiently.

"We need to be careful. Remember Sarah, my mission is to protect John, I am not indestructible. Perhaps we can scout it out and find out more about this prototype, but the best course of action is to get your son ready for Judgment day. I can lay out a plan to get him in shape, combat ready, and a military leader he needs to become. But pushing this into 6 weeks will be a grueling pace and you won't like what you see. You must agree to stay out of my way when I train him. Do you understand?" Cameron asked cold heartedly to Sarah.

"Do it." Sarah said with a tear in her eye. "But know I promised my son to do whatever I could to stop judgment day. "Promise me that you will too."

"I promise." Cameron told her.


	73. Training Time

**Chapter 73: Training Time**

Cameron walked into John's room and flipped on the light switch. John grumbled before pulling the comforter over his head to shield himself from the light.

"Time to get up." Cameron said to John

John laid still in his bed for a moment before moving around under the comforter and looking at his alarm clock.

"Are you on daylight savings time? It's six in the morning." John muttered to his newly revived protector.

"Yes, I know it's six in the morning." Cameron informed him. "Be down stairs for breakfast in five minutes."

John watched her walk out of his room and slowly he got out of his warm and comfortable bed and got dressed. As he headed down stairs he saw Cameron sitting down with some books and some kind of medical kit.

"Take a seat." Cameron said waiting for John to sit down.

John did as she asked and looked a piece of paper.

"Are you kidding me?" John snarled at Cameron. "If you think I am doing all this in a week, you are out of your mind."

Cameron rolled up John's shirt sleeve, braced his arm down to the table and inserted a needle into John's arm drawing out blood.

"I hate giving blood." John winced in discomfort.

"I know you do, that's why I did it quickly so you won't complain as much." Cameron told John. "That schedule isn't for the week, it's for today."

John watched her take the fourth vial of blood and then took out the needle from his arm. "This is a sixteen hour day."

"I must get you ready John. The next six weeks won't be fun, it will be hell. But you will be prepared." Cameron told him.

"Look, we have six weeks, we aren't going to run and hide. We can stop this." John said a little irked at her.

"Perhaps, but even I don't like the odds we have. It is dangerous for either of us. You know that." She countered John.

Cameron walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a glass and poured John a cup of orange juice. She put it on the table for John to drink.

"I am going to go analyze your blood. Drink your juice. I'll be back in a little bit. Start reading the first chapter of the leadership theory books I bought for you last night." Cameron instructed John and then headed downstairs to do her work.

John sat at the table and drank his juice while looking at all the different books on the table. As requested, John opened up the book and started reading. John had a difficult time staying focused since he was still sleepy. After he got to page ten, he noticed Cameron coming up the stairs.

"So what did you figure out? That I am human?" John joked with Cameron.

"I analyzed the sugar and fat in your blood. I also figured out your metabolism rate and vitamin composition." Cameron informed him.

"Cam, it's early, can you explain that simple English please?"

Cameron looked at John and smiled. "It means I will be adjusting you to a strict diet to help maximize muscle gain and create the best fat loss. Since you will be doing a heavy work out every day, I will take that into consideration. "

Cameron started to make breakfast when Mark came down dressed for work.

"Good Morning Mark. Would you like some breakfast?" Cameron asked.

Mark smiled headed for the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and saw Cameron had some toast on the table with what looked to be peanut butter on it.

"Sure." Mark shortly said.

Cameron handed him a piece of toast and as Mark started eating it she continued back to cooking. Mark looked at the piece of toast and swallowed it with an awkward face.

"How is it?" Cameron asked.

"Great" Mark told her and then rolled his eyes at John. "Well, got to go."

Cameron served John breakfast and John started to eat it when he was about to get up to get some butter.

"No butter." Cameron told him. "You have to eat exactly what I give you, nothing more, nothing less."

John disappointedly sat down and slowly finished his breakfast.

"Since I drew some blood, go ahead and continue reading, we will do cardiovascular training at 10 today." Cameron informed John.

John watched her disappear out of the house so John looked around for something else to eat since breakfast wasn't that filling but he found that there was really nothing to snack on. He sat down, opened up the book and started to read. Multiple chapters later, Cameron came back in the house with bags full of groceries and started to stock the refrigerator. John stopped his reading and watched her.

"Go ahead and get ready, we are going to do some running in a couple of minutes." Cameron told John. She made a drink for John using water, some other liquids and powders that John didn't see and handed it to him. "Drink all of this before you change. It will help with your muscle cramps and recovery."

John did ask she asked, but it tasted bland and chalky. After he finished it he went up to his room and changed and came back down to see that Cameron already changed into a tight blue tank top and basketball shorts.

"Let's go outside and stretch out." Cameron said beckoning John to follow her.

Hours of silence in the lab were finally broken when Liz approached Mark.

"You have been quiet lately, is everything okay?" she asked innocently.

"Yeah, I am just tired. I didn't sleep well." Mark shortly responded to her.

Mark started to feel guilty about being over quiet around her and he decided to chat a little bit. He waited for her to leave the lab so the conversation wouldn't be recorded so he followed her out assuming she was going to use the bathroom. He checked out of the lab about 15 seconds behind her and when he caught up to her, she was talking to another one of the employees. Mark thought nothing of it until he heard her ask him about lunch and saw her put her hand on his and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Mark ducked back around the corner and heard her giggle a little.

"What the hell is going on?" Mark whispered to himself and went back to the lab quickly.

The guard saw Mark coming back only after a minute.

"That was fast." The guard told him.

"I hate that phrase." Mark joked with the guard.

The guard laughed at Mark's pun and let him back into the lab. About fifteen minutes later Liz came back into the lab.

"Hey you want to get lunch today?" Mark asked her trying to draw out a reason of what was going on.

"I can't today, I have to go home and run some errands, how about tomorrow?" Liz told Mark with a smile.

"Yeah, sure." Mark said to Liz. He went back to work playing around with some micro power supplies. Mark was taking interest in anything that he could to do figure out some upgrades to make Cameron more powerful. Most of the stuff he researched wouldn't apply, but he was hoping his power supply idea would be useable.

John kneeled over in pain attempting to draw air into his lungs.

"I can't run anymore. I need a break." John pleaded with Cameron.

"Keep walking it off then. We have another 2 miles." Cameron informed John. "We have only ran 3 miles, and completed 5 sprints of 400 yards." She took John's wrist and measured his pulse. "We can walk for about twenty two seconds, and then we pick up the pace again."

John stayed at her side as she instructed him to do, using her as a pace leader. After an hour later they were finished and walked back to the house. John sat down on a chair completely exhausted and Sarah came outside with some chocolate milk. Before she got to John, Cameron took the milk and dumped it on the ground.

"Milk is good for you." Sarah angrily told Cameron.

"It is too much sugar. I told you Sarah, I will put your son through hell. You won't like it, but I must able to control all aspects of his diet. I have analyzed his blood; I will feed him to the calorie what he needs for maximum fat loss and maximum muscle gain. In the future he must be able to be quick and strong, or machines will kill him." Cameron explained to Sarah.

Sarah watched her son slowly recover and stand up.

"You better know what you are doing." Sarah said to Cameron and walked back in the house.

"Come on John, let's work on target practice." Cameron instructed John.

She set up some paper targets on some trees about 25 yards, 50 yards, and 100 yards out. She pulled out her pistol and loaded a bullet in the chamber and handed it to John.

"I want you to take 4 shots at each target. Aim for the bull's-eye and we can go from there." Cameron said.

John steadied the pistol and fired 4 shots into the first target, then the second, and finally the third. Cameron retrieved the targets and placed 3 more out there.

"Do the same thing, except this time, on one knee." She told him

John again did what he was told and fired the clip into the paper targets.

After retrieving the targets, John saw he was scattered on the 25 yard target, hit one shot on the 50 yard target, and the 100 yard target was untouched. She took John by the hand and led him inside the house and they sat at the table. She explained to John what he was doing right and wrong when firing the pistol and started to go over in detail everything about the pistol, aiming down the sights, leading the target, and gripping the gun. Thirty minutes later, she repeated the test again, and John faired a little better.

"Practice makes perfect." She said with a little smile. "Come on, let's do some weight training."

John felt his body reject the thought of more physical work but he did as she asked. Instead of the gym like environment, Cameron had buckets of various amounts of water, tree logs, and rocks. John did various exercises and Cameron spotted him the entire time. Each set was absolutely challenging for John and he was told to keep going until his muscles failed him.

"Let's go get some dinner." Cameron said to a limp John lying on the workout bench.

John slowly got up and followed her in. She prepared a light dinner for John with another one of her specially made drinks. Mark walked in the house with a fast food bag and a soda.

"Care if I join you?" Mark asked.

"Sure," Cameron told Mark.

John watched as Mark ate his cheeseburger and fries as he eats his chicken, egg, and horrible tasting drink.

"Man, this burger is good." Mark jeered at John.

John said nothing but exposed his middle finger at Mark.

"Is that any way to treat your future officers?" Mark laughed. "Cameron, John is being mean."

"I will make him run a little extra tomorrow for that Mark." Cameron let out a big smile for Mark. "Come on John, let's get changed and get ready for sniper training."

"Whoa, now that sounds interesting." Mark perked up. "Mind if I join?"

"I suppose that would be fine." Cameron told Mark.

After everyone changed, Cameron brought in a sniper rifle and sat it on the table. Mark and John took a seat, and much to Cameron's surprise Sarah joined them. Cameron talked for a couple of hours about the rifle, its components, details of shooting, lead times, wind factors. Mark jotted down some notes as she talked.

"Are we going to actually shoot it or just listen all night?" John asked a little tired.

"I don't have any ammo made for it yet, but we will soon." Cameron said. "It's been a long day, let's go to bed.

Mark headed to the basement and tinkered around like he normally did after work for a little bit and headed up stairs. He looked into John's room and saw he fast asleep with his arm around Cameron's waist. She saw Mark in the doorway, but didn't say anything. Mark heard Nicole and her new boyfriend talking in her room. Mark got to his room and laid down in bed, but couldn't sleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, he got up and started playing around with ideas in the basement again.

After a little bit, he heard footsteps coming.

"It's late, you should be asleep." Cameron lightly told Mark.

"I wish I could but I'm not really tired." Mark told her.

"Why?" Cameron asked. "You look exhausted."

"There are some things that are just in my mind that just keep me awake." Mark said to her.

Cameron pulled up a seat and sat right up against Mark. "Maybe you should share." She said looked at Mark.

Mark just nodded and started telling her his thoughts.


	74. Slowly But Surely

**Chapter 74: Slowly But Surely**

"Why are you still awake?" Cameron asked John playing with his arm draped around her waist under a comforter in bed.

"I don't know." John answered her.

"Is something on your mind? Your body is exhausted." Cameron asked.

"No." John said shortly.

"Is it about Mark being a better sniper than you?" Cameron questioned him.

"He isn't a better sniper than me." John told her.

"Well, he shoots more accurately than you, so by most standards, yes he is better than you at sniping." Cameron corrected him.

John got out of bed and walked over to the window and looked outside. Cameron followed him.

"Humans are so competitive." She whispered into his ear throwing her arm around John's neck.

"Well, if I'm the leader, I should be better. I will train harder." John told her.

"We can add more time for sniping if you like. You know you are now stronger, leaner, and quicker than Mark. You have only been on my program for two weeks and you lost 3% of your body fat, gained 2 pounds of lean muscle, and 6 pounds of body fat. Surely you can notice it." She told John.

"I know." John said to her.

"Good. Now come back to bed, you need your rest." Cameron told him and planted a kiss on his lips.

Cameron awoke early and allowed John to sleep in an extra fifteen minutes before waking him up for running. She started to make breakfast and heard Mark downstairs. She found him playing with scrap coltan pieces from the disabled terminators. One of the pieces was the terminators CPUs that Cameron snapped in to three pieces.

"Good morning." Cameron told Mark.

"Hey," Mark responded.

"Everything alright?" Cameron asked him.

"I guess so." Mark told her. "You know how I was telling you about this girl I work with named Liz the other day? Well, when we first met, it seemed we both had an attraction to each other but lately, she has be sneaking around and kissing and flirting with four different guys at the office."

"So she is trying to use her non Y chromosome to gain advantage in the company. It is a shockingly common occurrence in the human history, even in the future." Cameron explained to Mark.

"The what chromosome?" Mark asked.

"In simple terms, female." Cameron informed Mark.

Mark sighed at Cameron and rolled her eyes.

"So what are you working on?" Cameron asked to change the subject.

"Well, it is a surprise." Mark started to say. "So that if it doesn't work, then I don't look dumb."

"Oh come on." Cameron said walking up to Mark taking her fingers and sliding them across his neck gently.

Mark caved in and explained to her how he was trying to come up with a battery backup in case there was a power surge or damage, that it would be able to be really small, but power her CPU and body for 10 minutes before failing.

"That sounds like something really useful." Cameron told him. She offered her other thoughts on it and informed Mark that she did have a small pocket of space that could be used between her CPU and her shock denting assembly. "Thank you for explain that to me."

Mark just nodded at her. "You female mind tricked it out of me." he laughed. "You and Liz both got me with that fingers on my neck move. It isn't fair to be a man."

"Yes," Cameron said to him. "Human psychology is in my programming." She paused for a moment and then looked back again at Mark with a little concern. "So Liz did that same thing to you to?"

"Yeah, she did. Maybe sometime you can go psychowhatever Liz for me and figure her out so she will actually want to date me." Mark said to Cameron

"Okay." Cameron told Mark with no hesitation. "Well, I must get John up and kick his ass in training again today.

"You are going to give the guy a mental disorder. Ruthless bitch instructor during the day, and then hot and loving girlfriend by night." Mark informed Cameron.

"Maybe, I should lighten up a little." Cameron told Mark, sort of looking at the ground. "So, when is your lunch hour today?"

"Around noon, why?" Mark asked.

"Cause you are going to go to lunch with Liz." Cameron told him

"She will probably blow me off again." Mark laughed a bit.

"Ask her if she would like to go to the cafeteria at this address." Cameron said writing it down and handing it to Mark.

Mark looked at it and started to laugh. "You mean chicks dig a mediocre at best restaurant with bad reviews?"

Cameron smirked at Mark for a moment. "Trust Me, It won't disappoint."

**Auther note: Sorry for the short chapter, but last week and this week will be hectic with personal things. Thanks for reading **


	75. The Lunch Date

*Author Note: The holidays are over and things look to be on track. Sorry about the delay and enjoy!

**Chapter 75: The Lunch Date**

John slowed down his pace allowing himself to slow down his heart rate. Cameron and him have already ran about eight miles and had a couple to go. While they were running Cameron instructed him on various topics she deemed important from him to know and learn for the future. John was half side tracked and was looking around at the farm lands in the area.

Noticing that he was drifting his attention away Cameron asked him a question. "Would you like to go to a cafeteria for lunch today?"

"That works." John said quickly to not waste his air. "Where is it at?"

"It's about twenty minutes away from here." Cameron told John.

John looked confused. "Why are we going out of our way? We have food here, and I'm behind in reading."

"You could use a break and some time off." Cameron said watching John's eyes condemning her reason weren't the whole reason. "In the future, it's the location where you save twenty of your men from execution."

John slowed down from his running to a complete stop. "What happened?"

"You assigned a unit to go salvage some parts and equipment. As they got there, the machines surrounded the building. Against my better judgment, you and three other men took trucks with mini guns mounted on the back, but mowed the machines down." Cameron told him.

"Nice." John smirked.

"No it wasn't." Cameron looked serious. "It took me four hours to dig out a bullet from your leg. You were so stubborn you ripped your stitches out three times before walking around despite me trying to convince you to rest."

"Oh yeah?" John smiled. "Did you try giving me a kiss and seduce me?"

"No." Cameron said looking down the road. "You never liked public displays of affection so I choked you out and you slept for eight hours."

"You know you could be nicer to me in the future." John barked at her.

They returned to the house, John showered and changed and awaited Cameron who changed not into casual clothes, but what she wore if she knew she would be in a fight. John studied her appearance, saw her tucking away her pistol and followed her to the car.

After a quiet drive that John drifted in and out from the soothing road noise, they walked into the cafeteria and Cameron looked around the room to see if she could spot Mark and Liz. She found them at a table in the corner. Being sneaky, she led John to a table about twenty feet away. She sat facing the table where Mark and Liz were eating. She listened into the conversation they were having while John was talking to Cameron about some things he wanted to work on with her later in the week.

Cameron being short with John cut him off. "John, you won't be the best at everything. Mark is a very good sniper. You aren't. Besides you rarely even go sniping terminators in the future. You always send your scouts out. Don't worry about it so much. You should focus more on tactics, leadership, and physiology. She stopped for a second and saw John looked stunned. She decided to lighten up. We can train more with it, but don't worry much about it."

John was content with her answer and began studying the menu waiting for a waitress to come around. Cameron studied Mark's reactions around Liz. He was being flirty and very responsive. Liz seemed to feed off of it and their conversation was light, but fair. Liz would brush his arm often and study his facial expressions and mimic them. Cameron would chat with John and often look over to study Mark. On her latest peek over at Mark's table she noticed Liz looking directly at her. Cameron immediately looked down at the table and to the back of a menu. After a brief moment, she looked back over at the table and found Mark standing up at the table with Liz standing behind him. Cameron reached for her hand gun and pulled the slide back.

"If it gets bad, get the hell out of here. You understand John?" Cameron told John.

John looked at her awkwardly, and saw Mark walking towards them.

"Hey Mark, fancy meeting you here." John said politely standing up to greet him.

Cameron stood up in front of John. "Get out of here." She told him.

"No, I think he should stay." Liz told John. "It would be most unfortunate if you left so soon."

John looked over at Mark and he didn't appear to be in any danger, but the whole deal felt awkward to him.

"Sit, let's finish lunch." Liz commanded.

John slowly sat down with Mark and saw Cameron stand toe to toe with Liz.

"Don't be such a bitch." Liz said to Cameron's face. "Sit."

Cameron resisted.

"Do you really want to start a problem here in public? Human casualties would be high; John and Mark would be in danger, and so forth. Surely in your protector brain, you realize that and will not provoke an attack on me. "Liz demandingly told Cameron.

Cameron sat next to John, while Liz sat next to Mark.

"What the hell do you want?" Cameron angrily asked Liz.

"I want you to suffer, just like you made me suffer in the future." Liz told Cameron. "Right now, I am enjoying every minute of this."

"What is going on?" Mark asked. "Other than the fact you're a terminator. That part I already know."

Liz looked at him and asked. "How long did you know?"

"For a while," Mark told her. "Your actions and scanning patterns are the same as Cameron."

"And you didn't run?" Liz asked. "How very interesting."

"I've dated your kind before." Mark said sort of sarcastically.

Liz looked shocked. "Relax Cameron; you look like you're going to overload your circuits."

John attempted to calm her down by putting his hand on her knee, but it did nothing to help the situation.

"Have you told him about me, Cameron, about John and I?" Liz asked him.

"No, there is nothing to tell him about. You're a twisted malfunctioning machine that I should have terminated instead of assigned to recon missions." Cameron told her.

"No need to be so rude, Cameron." Liz stopped her from ranting. "Besides, he was a great kisser."

Cameron slammed her fist down on the table, cracking it down the middle. "You got him drunk, and you played on his emotions."

John looked at Liz confused about what she was speaking about.

"In the future John, there were a lot of missions to be carried out. Cameron left against your orders for about a week. You got worried, drank a little too much, and I just wanted to comfort you a little and we kissed. In my opinion it was a great way to relieve your stress a little." Liz explained him and winked at him.

"I watched you force yourself on him." Cameron said turning red in the face.

"Oh please, he didn't stop me. Besides, if you would ever be a girlfriend to him instead of only a stubborn co-leader with him, I wouldn't have to. You failed at your role." Liz smiled at John then back to Cameron.

"What do you want?" Cameron demanded of her.

"Always to the point with you isn't it?" Liz told Cameron. "Why don't you ever just relax and smell the roses." She said reaching out and gently touching John's hand before he pulled it back.

With her arm extended out, Cameron grabbed it. She attempted to overpower Liz, but to her surprise, Liz's strength matched her own.

Liz slipped her hand back and smiled at Cameron. "Honey, we are the same model number, I was the one that taught you everything about human emotion and psychology. But my recent upgrade to my combat chassis. I never would have dreamed fusing liquid metal into our coltan endoskeleton. I should thank your friend, well, technically now my friend John Henry for that."

Cameron stood up from the table and approached Liz.

Quickly, Liz pulled out a gun and stood up, then picked Mark up out of his seat and jammed the gun to the back of his spine before Cameron could get to her.

"Well, I suppose it's time for me to go since Cameron is being so rude, but first, John, give me a kiss or I will kill your friend. You have ten seconds to decide." Liz smiled at John.

John stood up and walked over to her. Giving into her demands he gave her a quick kiss, but Liz turned it into a longer kiss. Cameron stood with both fists clinched.

Liz released John from the kiss and whispered something that Cameron couldn't hear into his ear.

Liz started back peddling to the door and giggled a little. She tossed Mark the gun she had at his back.

Mark noticed the gun wasn't loaded at all and was never in any danger.

"Come on Mark, I would never hurt you. You're too cute to kill." She said blowing him a kiss.

"What makes you think that I am going to just let you walk out or here?" Cameron yelled at her.

"Probably that machine that is about ready to put multiple rounds of hot lead into the back John's neck standing behind you." Liz said pointing at the hulking triple eight standing at the entrance of the cafeteria.

Cameron turned around letting Liz out of her site and stepped over to stand in the way of the machine and it target John.

As the machine drew its gun and fired, multiple bullets hit Cameron's chest and fell harmlessly to the floor. The noise and fear caused the customers to start screaming and attempted to flee the building.

"Looks like it's time for your field test John." Cameron said pushing him back into the safety of cover.

As the sounds of bullets sang in the room, Cameron approached the machine to engage in hand to hand combat. The terminator kicked at table at her causing her to be unbalanced and the machine pushed her to the ground.

Having a clear shot at John, he ducked behind a wooden pillar, but it wouldn't hold long. The machine approached John and he again ran behind different cover looking for something to use as a weapon. Mark ran over and stayed behind the bar trying to stay out of harm's way. He saw a shotgun tucked away.

"Nice." Mark said to himself.

He pumped it and stood up to attack the terminator, but the machine knew he was there and shot him twice in the chest. Mark staggered back forcefully against the bar before tossing John the shotgun and falling to the floor.

John unloaded the shotgun into the machine which knocked it back with some force, but otherwise not damaging it. However Cameron managed to get behind the machine and twisted its neck with a loud pop and crunching sound. She reached for the exposed spinal column and snapped it in two and the machine fell lifeless to the ground.

She looked like a woman in fury and quickly snapped out of it knowing Mark was attacked. Leaping over the bar to Mark on the ground. She and John were both stunned seeing Mark holding his chest with one arm and trying to push himself up off the ground with the other.

John helped him to his feet and Mark looked to be slumped over a little dealing with some pain.

"How the hell did you just shrug off two shots to the chest?" John asked.

"John." Mark started to say. "Every time I am in a public area with you or Cameron, I get shot. So I made a lightweight coltan armor in the shape of a shirt. I figured it would stop physical impacts, but didn't know about bullets. John looked and saw the silver undershirt showing from where the bullet holes were on his other shirt.

"That is very impressive." Cameron said. "It saved your life"

"I made some other stuff last night too. I had a feeling this lunch would go down weird. He said.

"What did Liz whisper to you, John?" Cameron asked.

"She told me a time and place to meet her." John told Cameron.

Cameron nodded. "Let's get out of here before the police get here."

Cameron grabbed the terminator and John watched Mark look for something at the bar.

"What are you looking for?" John asked.

"I need a drink." Mark said grabbing a bottle of rum and a coke from the refrigerator.

"Dude, its only one in the afternoon." John laughed a little telling him that.

"Don't judge me dude." Mark laughed. "Anytime I get shot at, it warrants a drink."

"You will be drunk a lot in the future then." Cameron chimed in. "Let's go."

Mark rolled his eyes and took the rum and coke bottles with him. "Drunk it is!" he said softly as John heard it and laughed on the way to the car.


	76. Trust

**Chapter 76: Trust**

"I don't think your idea is a very good plan. You are exposing yourself and it is highly risky. Liz needs to be terminated. She is no friend of the human resistance." Cameron lectured John while he was sitting down at the table contemplating the day's events.

"It is a risk I have to take. You know I would do the same thing in the future." John rebuked her. "You trained me well, Cameron. Besides, if Liz wanted to kill me, she had her chance at the diner. If it looks bad, I will bail out.

Cameron looked at John with disappointment and seemed a little hurt John didn't want her by his side. She nodded her head at him and walked away.

Mark threw down a coltan armor undershirt on the table for John.

"I only had time to make one of these things. Take the one I wore earlier. It seemed to do a good job earlier today." Mark said to John referring to the shots he took to the chest earlier that day." Mark told John.

"Does it block out most the pain?" John asked Mark.

"Well you know you get shot. It stings like hell. So no, not really." Mark laughed a little.

Hours passed as Mark and John spoke about random events and were joined by Sarah and Cameron. Sarah tried to talk John down about going alone, but didn't succeed. John played the being the leader and solider he needed to be and Sarah disliked it but knew he would do it with or without her blessing. Cameron told John thing to look out for and to avoid certain traps.

Around eight in the evening John got up and walked upstairs, got dressed. He came down in a leather coat, shirt and jeans. He didn't say anything as he left the house and drove away.

"I don't like this. He is in danger." Cameron spoke pacing around the living room floor.

Mark sat on the sofa with the television on. "I knew that would annoy the hell out of you. Here take this." He said lifting up his arm with a cell phone in his hand.

Cameron walked up to him and took the phone. "She studied it for a while and her eyes widened at Mark.

"I put a GPS transmitter in the coltan undershirt when we got back to the house." Mark told Cameron.

Cameron headed for the door and opened it. "So why did you give me this? Do you not trust John on his mission?"

"Same reason why you are going after him now." Mark said with a grin on his face.

Cameron smirked and headed out the door and took off after John.

John carefully walked around the building he was told to meet Liz at. I walked quietly and looked around for escape routes if anything got in hand.

"Good Evening John." Liz said out loud. "I am in the other office area.

John heard Liz and found her sitting down at a table in the office. She was looking at a newspaper.

"I heard you come in downstairs." Liz said with a smile. "You came alone like I asked, so thank you."

John walked around the room and to the table.

"Please sit down." Liz told John. "I have much to tell you."

John pulled out a chair and say down like Liz asked. "So why am I here?"

"I wanted you to know the truth. I am really not your enemy. In fact I am the same model as Cameron. Same original design as well." Liz told John.

"I know that Skynet created your model series to penetrate the human resistance by copying images from captured female soldiers. After you could get in the camp, you could fine me and kill me. I found it hard to believe that you aren't my enemy. Cameron was until I reprogrammed her." John explained to Liz.

"You are correct. That is what we were programmed for" Liz told him.

"We?" John asked. "You mean yourself and Cameron?"

"Actually there were three of us. There were going to be more, but your guardian blew up the factory." Liz told John.

John looked at Liz with confusion.

"Oh she hasn't told you?" Liz said with a big smile on her face. "Well then allow me to tell you. Skynet created a new model to infiltrate your camp and kill you. The problem with that is trying to become more human is a continuous learning process. Every time Skynet sends out a terminator unit, we are preset to read only." Liz began her story.

"Right, the machine set back to protect me as a child was set to read-only. Skynet didn't want any thinking going on. Didn't fully understand why Skynet created them and didn't trust their own units." John spoke to Liz.

"Skynet in general saw human revolt against each other and decided that it didn't want the same issue. Despite that we run on code, we aren't perfect. Anyways, Skynet was unhappy with our progress of adapting to become more human, so we were set in to have our chips set to active learning. Skynet had plans to create a dozen of our model, but Cameron took it upon herself to ensure that never happened. She deemed that three of us was too many and risked increasing failure in the mission so she blew up the factory before Skynet could finish the others. After Skynet knew Cameron's mission failed because you captured her, Skynet deemed our model a threat and ordered us terminated. I discovered this order first hand after watching the termination of the third model. I ran for self preservation." Liz told her story.

"So what's your mission then?" John asked. "Clearly you have something going on in that chip of yours."

"You are correct. I do." Liz answered Mark. "It Skynet wins, all human life is terminated and every resource would be then assigned to cut off loose ends. However, I don't trust humans. Your kind is a backstabbing species and will do anything to get ahead in life."

"So why am I here then?" John asked. "So you could tell me you don't like Skynet nor myself?"

"No." Liz said. "You are here because you are almost out of time. The war will being in days, not weeks like Cameron thinks. There is an abandoned military base about two hours away that Skynet has secretly captured and has a small amount of nuclear warheads and a factory that is in no question on line and creating terminators as we speak. I asked you here, because I have the location of the base."

Liz stood up promptly and stared at Cameron stalking around the corner.

"Is your meaning peaceful or violent?" Liz asked.

"For now, peaceful." Cameron spoke. "If you told John anything stupid, violent."

Liz looked up a monitor on the desk. "Did you invite other people to this meeting?"

Cameron looked confused.

"It looks like we have some unfriendly company incoming." Liz told Cameron.

"How many?" Cameron asked.

"At least three." Liz commented.

"If you set us up, I will tear you apart bolt by bolt." Cameron flared at Liz. "John, go find cover. Liz and I will deal with this."

"I have a better idea." John said walking up to the door and planting and arming a small amount of explosives at the door. "It won't be enough to kill one of them, but it should be enough to take out a couple of metal limbs."

"Isn't this exciting?" Liz said walking up and standing by Cameron. The sound of multiple footsteps approached them as John ducked for cover.


	77. The End Is Nigh

**Chapter 77: The End Is Nigh**

Cameron watched carefully as two terminators walked into the door frame as they started to scan the area.

"Can we help you boys with something? You are interupting girl time." Liz told the two metal men.

"Where is John Conner?" one of the spoke.

"Who?" Liz asked playing dumb.

"Tell us now or be terminated." The other one spoke.

"I'm right here you tin cans." John spoke coming out of cover and shooting a bullet at his explosives. The explosion was enough that it destoried the first terminators left leg and knocked the other machine down.

Two more machines joined the others as now the total count was up to four. Cameron grabbed John and flung him behind her as she began to take gun shots to her chest protecting John. Liz marched up to one of them and begun a pushing match. As the machines began to to reload Cameron dove after the two other standing machines knocking them to the floor.

John ran up to the crippled machine and kicked away his semi automatic weapon and drew his gun. Being about two feet away, John shot out the machines eyes leaving it crippled and now blind. The machine helplessly crawled around hoping to get lucky enough to find a gun or a human leg to brake with its powerful hands.

Liz continued her punching match with her one machine as John struggled to see who was really winning the match.

"You know Liz, for being Cameron's equal, you are holding your own against one machine, but Cameron is fighting two." John yelled over at her while coming to Cameron's aid.

Liz let out a loud "hmph" noise as she began to speed up her assualt against her foe and slammed him into the wall.

John noticed Cameron getting tag-teamed now as the two machines were making her lose ground. John picked up his shotgun and unloaded on one machine staggering it back towards the door. He pumped the shotgun again and shot him in the face knocking him down the stairwell creating a loud crashing noise as it hit the floor.

"Later tin grin." John yelled looking over the stairwell and onto the machine not moving on the ground.

John was out of ammo and was going to his backpack to get more. Cameron being one on one with her machine won her battle as John saw the machine's head seavered from its body on the ground. He looked over to Liz and her oppenent. She had the machine's by the arm twisting it around snapping it from it's original position. With the machine exposing its back to Liz, she snapped its neck letting it fall to the ground. As it laid paralysied on the floor she picked up her leg and drove the high heel portion of her shoe into the machines eye with enough force that the heel hit the terminator's chip causing sparks to fly out of the machine.

"Terminated" Liz said pulling her shoe out of the terminators skull.

Cameron searched for the crippled machine while Liz ran down stairs to finsh up what they started.

John watched as Cameron methodically stalked the crippled machine and struck the machine with authority terminating its mission. She started to pull out her pock knife and began to retrive the machine's chip.

"John, get that other terminator's chip. We will need to see what they know." Cameron said.

John kneeled over the machine to retrieve the chip as Liz was launched over at him knocked him crashing into the wall behind him.

The terminator walked through the door to be met by Cameron's left boot in the face. Liz picked herself off of John.

She looked at him and used her hand to brush off some rubble on John's face.

"I suppose I should go help your girl." Liz whisped in John's ear. She walked over to Cameron and grabbed the machines right arm. Cameron grabbed the machines left arm as they picked him up in the air and they both slammed the machine into the ground. John grabbed a small explosive from his bag.

"Ladies, do you mind if I have a turn here?" John asked as he was playing with a small explosive in his hand lightly tossing it in the air.

"Only cause you asked so nicely." Liz said. Walking away from the stunned machine trying to gather itself from the overwhelmed attack from eariler

"This isnt a game John. We need to know what it knows." Cameron said denying John.

"Do you always deny John such fun plesures?" Liz asked winking at John.

Cameron crushed the machine's neck before rolling it over to safely remove its CPU.

The machine's body laid still as it's head moved around to prevent termination. Before Cameron could get to the machine's chip a phone started ringing. Cameron looked at Liz and she denied the phone was hers. It was coming from the machine's leather jacket.

John walked over and grabbed the phone from the terminator's body. He looked at the number and the phone requested to being the video conference.

Cameron nodded at John to begin.

John pressed answered the request and on the other end of the phone there stood a terminator shrouded in darkness.

"I see you were able to take care of my 3 scouts." the machine calmly said.

"You mean 4. But, yeah I wouldnt expect them to come back as he flipped one of the terminator's CPU in front of the camera on the phone.

The machine showed a displeased looked and handed the phone over to John Henry.

"John, you will be pleased to know I finally understand the importance of human life and a machine's life. I finally realized that the human race is programmed for self-destruction. If they dont have something to conquer, they turn on themseleves. So I have decided to allow the human race to submit to my rule. I will peacefully transform the human race into something better. Together with the world being led by myself and the machines, Earth can reach new heights in power and technology!" He spoke

Connor looked into the phone. "You must have damaged your CPU. That will never happen."

"Reprogramed, not damaged." The other machine said pushing John Henry out of the way of the camera. The machine stood in darkness so John still couldn't see who or what model it was. "After I captured John Henry and turned him against your pathetic race it was a small matter of time before I convinced him that it would be best that the machines monitor and control all of the security systems around the world to my control."

"Yes it is a brillant idea sir. I will have full control in less than four hours." John Henry said to the phone.

Cameron whispered under her breath. "Judgement Day."

"You are a respectable oppenent John Connor. I will give you the option to run and hide like all cowardly humans, and we can fight it out as your fate will lead you, or you can met me at the nuclear weapons facility address I will text you once I capture it and we can settle the score tonight." the machine told John. "But dont forget to bring your bitch of a guardian with you. I owe her after she blew off my jaw. The machine said stepping into the light then ending the call.

"We must run." Liz said. "That machine is more advanced than Cameron or I. After Mark told me about Cameron's run in before she barely escaped with her life, we can't beat him.

"Cameron?" John asked looking at her.

"The mission would be suicidal. Even with my upgrades the fight would still be in his favor. His endoskelton is about the same as mine but he will have hordes of machines there with him. Even with your mother and Mark, thats five against who knows how many." Cameron told John. "The nearest nuclear sheltor is three hours away. We dont have much time to consider the options."

"Four, I'm not terminating myself for a fool's mission." Liz said walking away.

"We need to go back to the house and get the others then." John spoke.

Cameron took John by the hand. "I am with you to the end. Whatever you choose I will protect you until I die."

John nodded and they all got in the car and headed back to the house.


	78. The Bitter End

**Chapter 78 – The Bitter End**

"John, it's time to go." Sarah told her silent son standing in the corner looking out of the window.

John didn't move or even look up at his mother.

"Cameron herself said the chances of stopping them are less than 1%. I know it is sickening, but this is your destiny. You must survive to save mankind." Sarah told her son.

"No." John said to himself out loud. "1% is good enough for me to try."

Cameron walked over to John and started to study his eyes. "I know you're scared, but this day is going to happen, even if we prevent it today. It is fate."

"Can you really look outside and watch the kids play in the street, while we drive away to some bunker to hide out for years without trying to save them. To just hide while we allow the destruction of mankind?" John turned and asked his mother and Cameron.

"John, I understand. But.." Cameron started to speak.

John cocked his pistol and tucked it away in the side of his jeans.

"I will not watch this world burn if there is something I can do about it. You say it's my destiny. Does the future not change all the time? I could survive the nuclear war, and die to a stray bullet the next damn day. Different generals, new technology, smarter machines, think about it." John told his mother.

Sarah nodded and walked away to her room. Cameron stared at John for a while before she spoke.

"You know you are taking a big risk. I'll get the weapons.." Cameron told him.

John stared at her. "That's it? No trying to back me down? Knock me out and I wake up in a bunker?"

"I am your protector. My mission is to assist and protect John Connor." Cameron said to John.

John grabbed her arm before she walked away. He looked at her and said. "What about your opinion despite your programming?"

"Future John would do the same thing you are now. You never would stand down and let people die." Cameron explained to John. "We must get ready."

Mark and Liz walked in the house after throwing some things in the car.

"We ready to bail this state?" Mark asked John.

"Change of plans, Mark. I am going to bring the fight to Skynet. I can't let innocent people die." John answered Mark.

"That is suicide." Liz barked at John. "Mark, we must flee. There is no chance of success in this suicide mission."

"How many we got on board?" Mark asked.

"It would be yourself, Liz, my mother, Cameron, and me." John answered Mark. "Nicole and her boyfriend split the second they heard."

"I'm out. I will not march into a death trap." Liz said. "Are you coming with me Mark, or going to ride to your death?"

"I never did like long road trips and bunkers." Mark replied.

"Fool." Liz scolded Mark and stormed out the door.

"Damn, it would have been useful to have 2 coltan enhanced women on our side." Mark joked a little nervous.

"Nice joke." Cameron said patting Mark on his shoulder handing him a sniper rifle and pistol.

Sarah came into the room with a bag of ammunition and guns. "Let's do this."

They walked out the door and into the truck while Cameron drove them to the location John Henry directed. The ride was silent and tension was high.

The place looked more like a fortress than a base with four towers all of which at machines guarding every exit and every tower.

Cameron studied the patterns of the machines and she instructed Mark to take out the walking patrol guard while she takes care of the tower guard.

Mark looked at her oddly since there was no really good way to get to the tower guard.

"Fire when the patrol guard turns the corner, or I will be seen." Cameron told Mark.

Mark laid steady on the ground pointing the rifle towards the corner while Cameron dashed to the tower and started to climb the tower. The guard turned the corner and Mark shot and directly hit the machine in the eye. Sparks flew from the machine as it fell to the ground trying to recover from the damage. Cameron quickly reached the top of the tower and waited for the tower guard to look over the edge to see what happened. Like clockwork, the machine peered over the edge to be met by Cameron grabbing the machine and throwing him off the tower to the ground. The machine reached for its weapon, but Cameron knocked it away and battled the machine. Mark took another shot and hit the terminator in the leg knocking it down. Cameron used the leverage and twisted the machine's neck almost full circle before it saw its last vision. She signaled for the others to move up and while they moved she terminated the vision impaired machine on the ground. They snuck over to an opening a Cameron started to scan everything.

"Mark, take position in the tower and stay low. If we need cover fire, then you can help. Stay out of site. Sarah and John, stay here while I clear a path to the main building." Cameron instructed them. Cameron then moved about and carefully stayed hidden in the shadows to be undetected. Sarah looked around and noticed a second patrol was headed right towards Cameron.

"John, tell her a machine is incoming on her position!" Sarah told John. "She doesn't see it coming."

Sarah stepped out of the corner and raised her rifle to the machine and took aim. Her finger went for the trigger when a loud bang ran across the night sky. Sarah was knocked on her bottom and blood spilled from her arm and she yelped out in pain. John grabbed her leg and pulled her behind the wall. Spotlights came on and flashed all around John. Cameron grabbed her rifles and took to the fight to the machines. As she laid cover fire down, Mark sniped down a few targets before he saw Cameron get overwhelmed by at least a dozen of machines. Bullets bounced off her endoskeleton but started to take its toll on her flesh. Quickly overwhelmed the machines ripped the guns from her hands and pinned her down.

Another machine walked out of the main building dragging something with him. He walked over to Cameron and commanded the machines to get her on her feet.

"Welcome John, you didn't disappoint me. I knew you would show. Now come out peacefully before someone dies."

"Run John," Cameron yelled.

John was about to move before Sarah grabbed him. "They will kill you." she told him.

John Henry pointed at the tower Mark was in and motioned for one of his machines. The machine walked up to John Henry and pointed a rocket launcher at the tower and fired.

"Mark get out of there!" John yelled at the top of his lungs. He saw Mark jump up and dive off the side of the tower, but the rocket hit it and blew it all to pieces. He looked for Mark but saw nothing but rubble smoking on the ground.

"Run John, I will buy you some time." Sarah said picking up a gun and getting to your feet.

Sarah was about to turn the corner when a machine had came from behind and backhanded Sarah knocking her out. The machine pointed a gun at John's head and motioned for him to move towards John Henry.

"John, so good to see you again." John Henry told him. "Let's go inside." he said to John then jammed a power line into Cameron's exposed metal causing sparks to fly forced her CPU to power down.

John looked around as he was the last one standing and being pushed into the building. John Henry started telling John facts about humans, error rates, and even touched upon emotions. Then he showed John the arsenal of nuclear weapons that he was about to launch to start the war.

They got to a different room where the machines threw Cameron into a corner and threw a switch causing Cameron to be forcefully pinned to the ground. John saw her rebooting and looking at him.

"Magnetic field?" John asked.

"Yes." another machine told John. I wanted that bitch to watch you die. For her to see that she failed her mission, then I will kill her as well."

John recognized the machine from a month ago that Cameron escaped from using a grenade in its mouth.

"How's the mouth?" John sarcastically asked the machine.

"I am beyond your comprehension of a superior machine since the last time you met me. I will lead these machines after the war and kill your pathetic race." the machine ranted getting closer to John. "Now I just have to figure out how I want to kill you. My sensors twitch with excitement." he continued.

The machine stalked John, pointing a gun at his head, then his chest. It was toying with him.

"I have a better idea." John said.

* * *

Outside amongst the rubble, a brick was pushed down the pile and an arm weakly reached out for help. Bright lights shined at the pile and Mark faintly heard a car door open and slam shut. Bricks started to fly off of him and he saw a much needed friendly face.

"Try not to move, you are in horrible shape." Liz told Mark as she was trying to free him.

"You came back." Mark painfully said.

Liz freed Mark and felt a coltan vest under his shirt. "I thought you gave that to John." She said.

"I made a second one." Mark grinned as he spat out some blood.

"You have multiple broken ribs, fractured arm, and some pretty bad gashes on your legs. We need to get you to a hospital." Liz explained to Mark helping him to the car.

"The others," Mark paused. "They were captured. We need to free them."

"Are you freaking insane? You are in no shape, and I can't beat a dozen machines by myself." Liz scolded Mark.

"And after they kill them, who do you think will be hunted?" Mark said looked at her. He limped to the car and tore a shirt that was sitting in the back seat and wrapped his legs to stop the bleeding. "Besides, I have a plan."

* * *

"You wish to fight me, one on one?" the machine asked John.

"You worried machine?" John taunted his metal assassin.

"Fair enough." The machine grinned with excitement.

John looked around the room for anything he could use to his advantage. No metal stakes, Cameron was locked down in the magnetic field, and he saw the power line holding her down. The other dozen or so machines stood still intent on watching the final showdown. John Henry was happily watching on the other side of the room and watching over Sarah.

"Your move Connor." The machine jeered.

John looked at his feet then pulled a flash bang from his pocket and threw it at the machine's face. With precision the flash bang went off in the machine's face, blinding him temporarily. John went for the power panel to turn off the electricity to free Cameron, but felt a sharp pain as a bullet pierced his hand sending blood all over the wall.

John grabbed his hand in pain and looked for the other terminator which closed in on him and punched him in the face.

"Pathetic human." Spoke the machine.

"John!" Cameron whimpered out as she knew she was helpless to protect him. Sarah was still out cold.

The machine took its foot and pressed it against John's chest. The sheer weight was brutal to bare and he was only alive due to the coltan vest he had on.

John looked towards the doorway only to water pumping into the building. Then a bullet came whizzing by him and missed the machine slowing killing John. The machine looked over to see Mark holding a pistol aimed at itself.

"What is more pathetic? You thought a small bullet could stop me, or you missing your shot?" the machine criticized Mark.

"I didn't miss." Mark informed the machine.

The machine looked and saw the power line to the magnetic field was severed. Cameron was quick to her feet and speared the machine off of John.

"Kill them all!" John Henry instructed the other dozen machines watching the fight.

The dozen machines turned around to take action and Liz came to Mark's aid and tossed a sizable quantity of explosives into the pack of machines. She dove on top of Mark to shield him from the incoming shrapnel. John hid behind a cement pillar and Cameron and the other machine ignored it while battling it out in epic fashion.

John Henry showed his anger and picked up Sarah who was starting to come around. Liz saw the other machines starting to regroup and committed the most selfless act.

"Run!" Liz screamed as she grabbed the severed power line and grabbed onto the machine Cameron was fighting and pushed the live power cable into the wet ground. Sparks flew everywhere and multiple devices started to catch fire including Liz. All of the machines were rebooting except Cameron and John Henry. When Cameron looked back to John Henry he was out the door using Sarah as a human shield, when he was outside and in the vehicle he knocked her out and escaped in a jeep.

Mark carefully pulled Liz out of the mess and patted out the flames burning her arm. John and Cameron came back in the building and Cameron picked up Liz and ordered John to blow the building. John reached for his mother's backpack and set a large C4 explosive on top of the terminator he fought earlier. He rigged the charge to go off in ninety seconds.

"Sounds like it will go out with a bang." Mark joked spitting up blood.

Cameron came back in and helped Mark to the other jeep along with John. She put Sarah in the backseat with them.

She started the jeep up and floored the gas pedal to escape the massive explosion to come in less than forty seconds. As they fled the scene a helicopter came from the sky and beamed a light on them. Next Cameron saw multiple police and military vehicles coming after them.

"Pull the vehicle over or we will open fire." The helicopter demanded of them as multiple new helicopters came to the scene.

Cameron swerved the car into the city blocks and around buildings to lose the helicopters following her. She did her best until a SWAT truck pummeled the jeep and sent it plowing through a large shopping center.

Cameron tried to restart the jeep but it was totaled.

"John are you okay?" Cameron asked.

No response came from John. She looked over and saw Liz checking his pulse.

"He's alive, but they are in really bad shape. If we move them, they could bleed out and kill them." Liz said.

Liz grabbed Cameron's metal exposed arm but Cameron didn't budge.

"I won't leave John." Cameron told Liz. "I am his protector."

"You won't be able to stop millions of bullets that will hit him when you resist the police. We must disappear, they will get the paramedics for them, patch them up, send them to jail, and then you can get them back." Liz explained to Cameron.

Cameron nodded tearfully at Liz and they disappeared while the SWAT team came in and called in the medics for John, Mark, and Sarah. They searched the parameter for others but came up with nothing. The ambulances arrived and one by one they carefully pulled them from the car and on to the stretcher.

Liz beckoned Cameron to leave the area, but Cameron stayed behind as John was carefully taken to the ambulance.

"It's a miracle that all three of them are still alive." One medic said.

"With this more police around here, I don't know if I would ever want to wake up." The other medic told his coworker.

Cameron listening in, spoke to herself "You are about to punish the man that just saved you and mankind from the machines when he could have ran and been free."

The ambulances fired up the engines, turned on the sirens and headed to the nearest hospital. Cameron watched with tears in her eyes as John was being taken away. She whisked them away with her metallic finger.

"I swear on my life John, I will be back for you." She said to herself and turned away walked into the darkness of the street.

* * *

Authors Note: Thank you all for reading my story and I hope you enjoyed my written season. I currently plan on writing the next story within a couple of months in which I will release chapters twice a week.

To mix things up, I plan on writing the next story in "real time" like the show 24 did in the past. It will be 24 chapters, and I currently have the plot set up to continue right were this story and leaves off.

Once again, thank you for reading my story, favorite me, and looking forward to releasing new chapters soon for my readers!


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